Izumi Shikibu Quotes

#1. The one close to me now; even my own body
these too will soon become clouds, floating in different directions.

Izumi Shikibu

#2. In love longing I listen to the monk's bell. I will never forget you even for an interval short as those between the bell notes.

Izumi Shikibu

#3. If the one I waited for came now,
What should I do?
This morning's garden filled with snow
Is far too lovely
For footsteps to mar.

Izumi Shikibu

#4. In this world
love has no color
yet how deeply
my body
is stained by yours.

Izumi Shikibu

#5. Rather than recall
in these flowers
the fragrance of the past,
I would like to hear this nightingale's voice,
to know if his song is as sweet.

Izumi Shikibu

#6. Watching the moon at midnight, solitary, mid-sky, I knew myself completely, no part left out.

Izumi Shikibu

#7. Perhaps, if I make a friend
of the mountain cuckoo
in this world,
he will talk to me
when we cross the mountain of death

Izumi Shikibu

#8. Even if I now saw you only once, I would long for you through worlds, worlds, worlds.

Izumi Shikibu

#9. Even when a river of tears courses through this body, the flame of love cannot be quenched.

Izumi Shikibu

#10. For a moment
he became smoke.
How intimate,
now,
the cloudy sky.

Izumi Shikibu

#11. Come quickly
as soon as these blossoms open, they fall. This world exists as a sheen of dew on flowers.

Izumi Shikibu

#12. Although I try / to hold the single thought / of Buddha's teaching in my heart, / I cannot help but hear / the many crickets' voices calling as well.

Izumi Shikibu