18 Wednesday Oct 2017
Posted in Summer 2012
(Totoya Hokkei; British Museum)
Innocuousness
can be just as damning as
a flagrant dislay,
for those in jealousy’s grip.
Suspicions arise
as to what might be buried
beneath russet leaves,
or between well-written lines.
Female coyness leads men on.
Yes, chrysanthemums
can slowly change their colours,
with cultivation.
Even modesty can mask
duplicity of all kinds.
07 Saturday Oct 2017
Posted in art, Arts, Literature, Nostalgia, Poetry, Relationships, Romance, Writing
Tags
(Image: Brooklyn Museum)
Her anger enhanced
the strong attraction he felt,
but her frank consent
was what he was awaiting.
He had spent a long
time feigning indifference.
Now he lay down beside her,
restraining himself all night.
They stood on the verandah,
watching the dawn sky.
It was a perfect moment.
The city beckoned.
He withdrew silently; his
scent impregnated her robes.
25 Monday Sep 2017
Posted in art, Arts, Humour, Literature, Nostalgia, Poetry, Relationships, Romance, Writing
(Wikipedia. Murasaki Shikibu portrait
Author: Kano Takanobu; )WalkerPlus)
When the letter came,
he did not let her see it.
It was pathetic,
but he saved the woman’s face;
she was a princess!
Murasaki was unique –
she should understand.
But why was he so nervous
if the other meant nothing?
Lady Hitachi
is the one he visits now.
No woman need fret:
she has a ginormous nose!
There is no competition.
(I have used Edward Seidensticker’s translation of
‘The Tale of Genji’ throughout. I have taken his prose
and cut, paraphrased and transformed the material,
re-shaping it into chokas and tankas. My intention was
to capture the spirit of the tale, but to return it to poetry
by using traditional Japanese forms.
Seidensticker made the work accessible to me, for which
I am indebted.)
24 Sunday Sep 2017
Posted in art, Arts, Literature, Nostalgia, Poetry, Psychology, Relationships, Romance, Writing
(Image: Wikimedia Commons)
It is quite futile
to torment oneself over
the inconstancy
of the opposite sex, she
declared, with a sigh.
The cockerel crowed early
and she had not slept,
but she trespassed on his dreams.
He left the woman’s chamber
on the first pretext.
Now he was back home,
there was no comparison-
just as sprigs of plum blossom
differ greatly from cherry.
04 Monday Sep 2017
Tags
choka, Kiri-Tsubo, koto, Murasaki Shikibu, Music, Otaki, Tale of Genji
Shadow of herself,
Kiri- Tsubo was wilting.
A hand-drawn carriage
took her from the Emperor.
Her ceremonies at
Otaki were conducted
with solemnity.
Inordinate love killed her.
On damp, chilly nights,
the music of the koto
plucked at his heart’s strings
and he could not bear to think
of their son, removed from court.
03 Sunday Sep 2017
Posted in Animals, art, Arts, Literature, mythology, Poetry, Relationships, Romance, Writing
Third Princess, your pet
climbed onto the balcony.
Oh, Kashiwagi,
why should you desire it when
you are not a cat lover?
03 Sunday Sep 2017
Posted in art, Arts, Literature, mythology, Nostalgia, Poetry, Relationships, Romance, Writing
So unassuming,
you were a Falling Flower.
A cuckoo beckons;
I smell the orange blossoms
and fond memories flood back.
28 Monday Aug 2017
Posted in art, Arts, Literature, mythology, Poetry, Relationships, Romance, Social Comment, Writing
(Artist:Utagawa Toyokuni; Denman Waldo Ross collection, Museum Fine Arts, Boston)
Vice-governor’s wife
was as a broom tree growing
in a shabby yard.
She chose her safe marriage,
for rank dictated conduct.
27 Sunday Aug 2017
Posted in art, Arts, Crime, Literature, mythology, Poetry, Relationships, Writing
(Artist: Utagawa Kunisada II; ukiyo-e-org)
Variation on earlier post: The Locust Lady
Utsusemi and
Nokiba-no-ogi play
Go. Genji then goes
for the former, but she flees,
leaving her robe behind her.
.
27 Sunday Aug 2017
Posted in art, Arts, Family, Literature, mythology, Nostalgia, Poetry, Relationships, Romance, Writing
(Fine Arts, San Francisco. Artist: Isoda Koryusai; c 1770 Achenbach
Foundation. Gift Miss Carlotta Mabury)
Oh, Kiritsubo,
bullied, you wasted away.
Your son was banished.
Fujitsubo looks like you;
the Emperor wed her, but
The Shining Prince will return.
