30. The Ink Dark Moon

To a man who used to visit secretly but asked to come now in the daylight

There are many
strange and lovely things
that swim in the midnight tide pools...
I think I do not want to share them
with other divers' eyes by day.

--- Izumi Shikibu

Extrait de The Ink Dark Moon, qui réunit les poèmes d'Izumi Shikibu et Ono no Komachi. La poésie la plus pure. La traduction (Jane Hirschfield et Mariko Aratani) y est sans doute pour beaucoup, mais chacun de ces poèmes résonne et résonne, comme un verre qu'on ferait chanter sous son doigt.

Un autre :

Waking up at dawn in November I heard a hard rain begin to fall

They say the winter days
are short,
but this one --
as soon as it grows light,
it grows dark!

--- Izumi Shikibu