Hand
I lift my hand. I stare at it.
This is the hand you pressed
So pledgefully that time we lay,
Ours only, breast to breast,
And pledged each other love eternal.
Staring at my hand,
I drown in understandings
That I dare not understand.
Lady Heguri (c. 750)
The Beach at Suminoe
Do not cut these reed-beds.
From where else could I watch
The girls go by in scarlet skirts
Wave-wet to the crotch?
Anonymous (late 7th Century)
If It Were Death
If it were death to love,
Dear love, believe you me
A thousand times a thousand times
I shall have lived see
My mortal flesh bear witness
To its immortality.
Lady Kasa (c. 733)
Dream World
Since by the time the moon's white pearl
Was full-grown in the sky
You'd still not come, what could I do
But turn to sleep and try
There to give you all that love
You could not there deny?
Lady Otomo no Skanoue (699-781)
Surprise
Heart-warming, when I visit
Unannounced, is her surprise.
Promises are merely words
And words are often lies,
But o her lifted eyebrows
And the shining of her eyes.
Anonymous (late 7th
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