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May 15, 2022

[The flowers and my love,]

Ono no Komachi

^{Translated by Yone Noguchi}

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

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on May 15, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.

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“[The flowers and my love,]” appeared in the Hyaku Nin Isshu as translated into English by Yone Noguchi, originally published in a 1907 issue of Waseda Bungaku.

Ono no Komachi was a Japanese poet from the Heian period. Counted among the Rokkasen, a group of six Japanese poets deemed the most notable from the Heian period, as well as the Sanjūrokkasen, a similar group of thirty-six poets from the Asuka, Nara, and Heian periods, she primarily composed in the waka form. Her name remains synonymous with feminine beauty in Japan.

Yonejirō Noguchi, born on December 8, 1875, in Tsushima, Aichi, Japan, was the first Japanese-born writer to publish poetry in English. He was the author of many books, including the Selected Poems of Yone Noguchi (The Four Seas Company, 1921). He died on July 13, 1947.

Hyaku Nin Isshu
(Waseda Bungaku, 1907)

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Thanks to Brandy Nālani McDougall, author of The Salt-Wind: Ka Makani Pa‘Akai (Kuleana ‘Oiwi Press, 2008), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Listen to a Q&A about McDougall’s curatorial approach and find out more about our guest editors for the year.

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"[The flowers and my love,]" by Ono no Komachi, translated by Yone Noguchi

[The flowers and my love,]

Subscribe to the Poem-a-Day Podcast

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