Setting sun desert
Hot skies are blooming colors!
It's orange and red,
with the pink and lilac sprays-
and floating creamy bouquets.
Blue stars are coming
searching for deep green they missed,
near to crescent moon.
Tall cacti salute the stars
......
Sunday church garden
of lime green blooms, reds and creams-
Luxuriousness!
Gracefulness and scented smiles
greet butterflies in hued styles.
Orange, yellows, pinks
in the sweet whirlwind of days!
Gathered together.
To the silence, bluebirds sing
......
Backdoor wide open
A cream moon is coming in
Softly, like a dream.
Beyond red sun, pearly rays
in a lazy, lilac night.
Howling wind whimsy
'midst the fantasy flowers
in plum, pink and green.
Silver moon, always welcome
......
These are Michael R. Burch's modern English translations of the ancient Japanese poems of Ono no Komachi, who wrote tanka (also known as waka) and was renowned for the beauty of her verse as well as for her physical beauty. Komachi is best known today for her pensive, melancholic and erotic love poems. Her bio follows the poems.
If fields of autumn flowers
can shed their blossoms, shameless,
why can’t I also frolic here —
as fearless, wild and blameless?
—Ono no Komachi, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
I had thought to pluck
the flower of forgetfulness
......
Pretty blue sky change
just as the sun is leaving
Peace of believing
Bees return from day's searching
still butterflies under moon
Blooms closing petals
Lustrous fireflies are dreaming
Starlit muted hues
Birds will issue a warning
......
Setting sun desert
Hot skies are blooming colors!
It's orange and red,
with the pink and lilac sprays-
and floating creamy bouquets.
Blue stars are coming
searching for deep green they missed,
near to crescent moon.
Tall cacti salute the stars
......
Graceful, tall grasses
A raspberry sun peers through
from the purple sky
steps ahead of tomorrow
to nature's joy and sorrow.
Burgundy fever
smoking beautiful colors
when shadows run wild!
Must get one more glimpse of red
......
Sunday church garden
of lime green blooms, reds and creams-
Luxuriousness!
Gracefulness and scented smiles
greet butterflies in hued styles.
Orange, yellows, pinks
in the sweet whirlwind of days!
Gathered together.
To the silence, bluebirds sing
......
Smiles on all faces
when roaming green, green spaces.
Mauve populations
and redbird expectations
thrill in butterfly nations!
Color imposes
Wild horses and red roses.
Singing lilac breeze
greets yon heather honeybees
......
Lavender roses
tossed in bright, silver sunlight
Chrysanthemum spells.
Lilies of the valley ring
just when redbirds start to sing.
Marmalade clouds roam
into pink skies of evening-
Jade cactus passion!
Moon appeared, fortunes to tell
......