Ono no Komachi & Kawara no Sadaijin
trans. by Naoko Fujimoto
Two POEMS
09
These petals, youth only passing
as I think of you in greenish rain
14
| Into the inner Oku, |
| a stone rubs silk with wild greens |
| dying complicated paths |
| as if my heart |
| tangles into yours |
| forgetting who I am. |
Ono no Komachi was a poet from the Heian period. She was notable for her unparalleled beauty.
Kawara no Sadaijin was a Japanese poet from the Heian period. He has been argued as the model for Hikaru Genji in The Tale of Genji.
Naoko Fujimoto was born and raised in Nagoya, Japan. Recent work appears or is forthcoming in POETRY, the Kenyon Review, Crazyhorse, Seattle Review, Quarterly West, North American Review, Prairie Schooner, Diode Poetry Journal, and PANK. She is the author of Glyph:Graphic Poetry=Trans. Sensory (Tupelo Press, 2021), Where I Was Born (Willow Publishing, 2019), and three chapbooks. She is an associate editor & outreach translation editor at RHINO Poetry.