Welcome to Litsy!

The autumn night
is long only in name-
We‘ve done no more
than gaze at each other
and it‘s already dawn.
The women of the Heian court did have the opportunity to cultivate writing as an art .Erotic & Spiritual,these poems are fine cut gems.This book was abandoned by me to a Christmas box years ago , emotional baggage to a situation I couldn‘t fix .I loved the book & might have to write a story someday about the situation!😃

A little poem with #impact.
#poetrymatters @TheSpineView

A stirring little poem for an autumn night.

It took me a while to get beneath the surface of these poems, perseverance being rewarded.

The phrase "ink dark moon" is not used by either poet (unless I missed it), although the individual words appear many times thought the collection. The introduction mentions the ancient Greek use of standard poetic descriptions, citing Homer's "wine dark sea" as an example, and I think that's the allusion made in the title.

Beautiful and poignant verses.

The way I must enter
leads through darkness to darkness-
O moon above the mountain's rim,
please shine a little further
on my path.

- Izumi Shikibu

When the netted fence of spiderwebs
that darkens my ruined house
can hold the wind in its strands-
that's when these troubled thoughts
will blow away. . . .

- Izumi Shikibu

"In this world
love has no color -
yet how deeply
my body
is stained by yours"

#IzumiShikibu was a 10th cen. Japanese poet. In this 1986 translation of her short poems it's eerily comforting how modern her emotional voice is.