Unaware of my black hair in disorder I lie;
the one who first lifted it is the one I miss
Come quickly— as soon as these blossoms open, they fall.
This world exists as a sheen of dew on flowers.
Izumi Shikibu, of Kyōto?, Japanese Empire (c.976-c.1030) She made the love affair an art form. Tr. Hiroaki Sato, ‘Japenese Love Poems’ in Love in Asian Art and Culture, UofWashingtonPress, 1998.
