„Even if I now saw you only once, I would long for you through worlds, worlds, worlds.“
Source: The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan
Izumi Shikibu quotes
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Izumi Shikibu
Birthdate: 976
Date of death: 1033
Izumi Shikibu was a mid-Heian period Japanese poet. She is a member of the Thirty-six Medieval Poetry Immortals . She was the contemporary of Murasaki Shikibu, and Akazome Emon at the court of empress Joto Mon'in.
She "is considered by many to have been the greatest woman poet of the Heian period". Her legacy includes 242 poems and 2 kashu."Torn between worldly ties and physical desire, Izumi Shikibu left a wealth of passionate love poetry, fueling rumors that purported that she was a femme fatale with numerous lovers besides her two husbands and two princely lovers."
Works
Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan
Izumi ShikibuQuotes 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
„Out of the dark,
Into a dark path
I now must enter:
Shine on me from afar,
Moon of the mountain fringe!“
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
Original: (da) Kuraki yori
Kuraki michi ni zo
lrinubeki
Haruka ni terase
Yama no ha no tsuki.
