The Pillow Book 2

Second poem inspired by the above text:

(Image: Asano Takeji: JAOD site)

 

On a moonlit night,

she sat by the verandah

while a flute was played.

Ladies were talking, laughing.

I stood to one side,

leaning against a pillar.

Go on!  Say something!

(The Empress was cajoling.)

I didn’t know what to say.

I’m struck by the moon;

She was satisfied:

There is nothing more to say.

 

 

 

The Pillow Book 1

Tags

The Pillow Book

Another inspirational text.  How about these poems

which I constructed, based on this work of literature?

 

(Yintan pics; Wikipedia)

 

It drizzled all night.

Where the spider’s web shredded,

raindrop-spangled threads

resembled pearl strands; shimmered.

When the sun came up,

frail flowers raised sodden heads,

slowly, of their own accord.

What astounded me,

was that when I described this,

no one cared a jot:

it was taken for granted.

 

Katana

Tags

alloy, differential hardening, gohei, iadoka, katana, Moving Zen, nioi, nukitsuke, resilience, seppuka, tachi, tamahagane, yasutsuna

 

Then Yasutsuna

saw half the swords were broken

on the battlefield.

After thirty days he’d forged

curved, slaughter-proof blades.

 

The gohei protect

our tatara from evil.

Older steel will stretch.

By the flames’ colour, we know

when the curve must be straightened.

 

Burns just mark me out;

hammering gives me tremor.

I can’t stop half-way.

Cold alloy cannot be worked.

I cannot grip my chopsticks.

 

Thick clay is applied

to the blades, before quenching.

Resilience comes

with a gradual cooling:

that is how we gain our souls.

 

The visual effect

of differential hardening –

a bright, speckled band –

can be seen from long angles:

nioi can never be faked.

 

Sharpening gives shape:

it can take up to two months.

Some old tachi blades

can be converted, but lose

signatures in the process.

 

The nukitsuke,

or ‘Moving Zen’ as it’s called,

used by Iadoka

show two hands better than one:

tensile strength and grace revealed.

 

You protect your lord.

Seppuka preserves honour,

warrior, weapon:

Tamahagane’s fusion

of deity and mankind.

 

 

 

 

Autumn Farewell

The Ujii Temple,

where the Autumn leaves excelled,

north of the city,

was the perfect place to think

of evanescence

and Life’s deep disappointments.

The religious path

suddenly seemed attractive,

but he could not leave Nijo

and Murasaki.

He wrote to Fujitsubo:

Mist obscures the moon,

but she was implacable.

Having chosen retreat,

she could only gaze on snow.

 

Fujitsubo

Tags

Fujitsubo, Genji, Murasaki Shikibu

Fujitsubo’s voice

curled round her hangings, like smoke.

Genji, now a man,

could no longer draw these drapes

and, if he were to visit

over-sensitive women,

he would freeze to death

on their balconies, while they

admired the swirling snowflakes,

his friend advised him.

When the colours of a robe

don’t match the season,

it is like the wrong partner

and your heart is frost-damaged.

Moonflower

Tags

choka, Full Moon, Genji, liana, Moonflower, Murasaki Shikibi, Shining Prince, Yugao

(Photo: Benjamin Graves, Sasebo, Japan:

Moonflower)

 

Liana, twilight

beauty, coy evening face :

a flower passed to

a shining Prince, on a fan,

by a frail, shy girl

in a shabby, cluttered yard,

in the full moonlight.

White as a glimpsed, pale forehead,

your fragrance attracted moths.

You opened yourself

to the evening dew; not

quite de-flowered, but jinxed.

Genji wiped salt tears on his

perfumed sleeve – to no avail.

Clandestine Love

Tags

clandestine love, Genji, Murasaki Shikibu, Utagawa

(Utagawa, JAOD)

 

Love seemed a torment:

it had all been so fleeting

and now she was gone.

He could not quench his regrets

and felt deep despair.

Why had he left her alone?

Orange blossom scent

mingled with his memories.

Everything seemed so dream-like.

No explanation

of her death seemed to make sense.

O, clandestine love,

your effects are so profound;

your inception so shallow.

 

Cloistered

Tags

Chikanobu Yoshu, Genji, Murasaki Shikibu

(Chikanobu: Snow-bijin entering

the temple. JAOD)

 

Everything changes;

nothing lasts, the old nun said.

To see a beauty

in a nunnery was odd.

Hiding from the world

must be a sad reaction.

He was made restless

by that one, brief glimpse of her.

But she would not answer him;

she would rather die.

He saw it as haughtiness.

A man’s insistence,

she felt, was just like the wind

which would blow hot and then cold.

 

 

Taking her Vows

Tags

Genji, Kotozuka Eiichi, Murasaki Shikibu

(Kotozuka Eiichi: JAOD)

 

In the tedium,

the gloom became contagious.

His querulousness

was becoming quite tiresome.

She felt like someone

half-way across a log bridge,

not knowing which way

she should go: forward, or back?

Irresolution gripped her.

Then she determined

that she would take her vows – now!

She sought no favour,

other than the way of peace.

.

 

Unique

Tags

Genji, Kiyoshi Saito, Murasaki Shikibu, Oigimi, Sanjo princess

(Kiyoshi Saito; Maiko Kyoto.

JAOD)

 

Although you can wear

the same clothing as others,

everyone’s unique,

even if they’re related.

You can’t summon up

individual qualities.

The Sanjo princess

did not quite reach his standard,

whatever she was dressed in.

She wasn’t equal

to Oigimi after all,

but he could train her.

She had a fair bit to learn.

He hoped she would not shame him.