We present this work in honor of Autumnal Equinox Day.
Japanese
898 – 920
Warding the mountain fields
In Autumn, on a rough-made hut
The dewdrops
Are passing birds’
Tears, no doubt!
Warding the Mountain Fields
Japanese
898 – 920
10th Century Poems
Japanese
898 – 920
Who’s There?
Japanese
c. 966 – 1017
If, when people call at the house,
I tell my girls to reply
The lady, sir, is not at home,
Don’t think it just a lie;
For the truth is I no longer know
Who’s there when I say I.
If I Were Only Sure
Japanese
10th century
If I were only sure
I could live as long as I wanted to,
I would not have to weep
at parting from you.
Fields of Autumn
We present this work in honor of the Japanese holiday, Labor Thanksgiving Day.
Japanese
c. 960 – 1041
Fields of autumn,
When I see the flowers,
My heart, it feels like
It’s completely content, or maybe
It yearns to leave me forever.
Love
Persian
10th century
I am caught in Love’s web so deceitful
None of my endeavors turn fruitful.
I knew not when I rode the high-blooded stead
The harder I pulled its reins the less it would heed.
Love is an ocean with such a vast space
No wise man can swim it in any place.
A true lover should be faithful till the end
And face life’s reprobated trend.
When you see things hideous, fancy them neat,
Eat poison, but taste sugar sweet.
The Rooster
Arab Andalusian
961 – 1048
Up he stands
To declare the darkness done for
The bird trimmed with a poppy
Who rolls his lustrous eyes for us
With song he calls to prayer
And he complies with his call
Beating his great plumes
Flexing his shoulder knuckles
The Emperor of Persia
Perhaps wove his crown
Personally Mary the Copt
Hung pendant rings from his ears
He snatched from the peacock
His most attractive cloak
And still not comforted took
His strut from a duck
Translation by Cola Franzen
On the Death of the Country
Chinese
c. 940 – 976
The king on the rampart flies the white flag.
Deep within the palace how could I know?
One hundred forty thousand all disarmed!
Among these there was not a single man?
Love Came and Flew
We present this work in honor of the poet’s 1,055th birthday.
Persian
967 – 1049
Love came and flew as blood in my veins
Emptied me of myself and filled me with beloved.
Each part of my being she conquered
Now a mere name is left to me and the rest is she.
A Mountain Brook
We present this work in honor of Mountain Day.
Japanese
c. 875 – c. 938
A mountain brook
Babbling is all I hear
Over the many-stoned palace
Swift as the current would I return to the days
I saw it-how I wish it could be so!
A Mountain Cherry
We present this work in honor of the Japanese holiday, Vernal Equinox.
Japanese
872 – 945
A mountain cherry
Through the drifting mists
Faintly
Seen thus there is a lady
I long for all the more.
Poets Corner 