Izumi Shikibu citations

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

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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.”

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Izumi Shikibu

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

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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.”

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Izumi Shikibu

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

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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