Quotes from Ono no Komachi

The flowers and my love, Passed away under the rain, While I idly looked upon them: Where is my yester-love?

Through the years I've become used to sorrow: There was not one spring I didn't leave behind The flowers.

Should I leave this burning house Of ceaseless thought And taste the pure rain's Single truth Falling upon my skin?

I long for him most during these hot moonless nights. I lie awake, hot, the growing fires of passion bursting, blazing in my heart.

Although there is not one moment without longing, still, how strange this autumn twilight is. — Ono no Komachi, The Ink Dark Moon tr. by Jane Hirshfield with Mariko Aratani (Vintage Classics, 1990)

Did you come to me because I dropped off to sleep, tormented by love? If I had known I dreamed, I would not have awakened.