Izumi Shikibu Quotes

“Even if I now saw you only once, I would long for you through worlds, worlds, worlds.”

Izumi Shikibu

Source: The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan

“Even when a river of tears courses through this body, the flame of love cannot be quenched.”

Izumi Shikibu

“In this world
love has no color
yet how deeply
my body
is stained by yours.”

Izumi Shikibu Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan

Source: Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan

“Watching the moon at midnight, solitary, mid-sky, I knew myself completely, no part left out.”

Izumi Shikibu

“Out of the dark,
Into a dark path
I now must enter:
Shine on me from afar,
Moon of the mountain fringe!”

Izumi Shikibu

Translated by Arthur Waley
"Said to be [Izumi Shikibu's] death-verse; the moon may refer to Buddha's teachings." Anthology Of Japanese Literature (1955) by Donald Keene, p. 92