Tanka

While watching the long rains, 6ft x 5ft

While watching
the long rains falling on this world
my heart, too, fades
with the unseen colour
of the spring flowers.

Hano no iro wa
utsuri ni keri na
itazura ni
wagami yo ni huru
nagame seshi ma ni

Ono no Komachi (mid 9th century CE)

Is this love reality, 6ft 6 x 5ft

Is this love reality
or a dream?
I cannot know
when both reality and dreams
exist without truly existing.

yo no naka wa
yume ka utsutsu ka
utsutsu to mo
yume to mo shirazu
arite nakere ba

Ono No Komachi (mid 9th century CE)

Further reading:
“The Ink dark moon: love poems”  by Ono no Komachi & Izumi Shikibu translated by Jane Hirshfield and Mariko Aratani (Vintage classics). New York: Vintage Books, 1990. (xxi, 212 p.: ill.)
LC#: PL758.825.L6 I55 1990; ISBN: 0679729585