Tanka Poems
Ono no Komachi translations by Michael R. Burch
by Michael R. Burch
These are Michael R. Burch's modern English translations of the ancient Japanese poems of Ono no Komachi, who wrote tanka (also known as waka) and was renowned for the beauty of her verse as well as for her physical beauty. Komachi is best known today for her pensive, melancholic and erotic love poems. Her bio follows the poems.
If fields of autumn flowers
can shed their blossoms, shameless,
why can’t I also frolic here —
as fearless, wild and blameless?
—Ono no Komachi, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
I had thought to pluck
the flower of forgetfulness
......
Auf Wiedersehen 2025
by Mario Odekerken
Auf Wiedersehen,Jahr
voll Fragen und leiser Schritte
Zeit legt Spuren ab
wir nehmen nur das Wesentliche
und gehen weiter vorwärts.
Twice as much
by Mario Odekerken
You gave me your half,
thinking it was just enough-
but love multiplies.
Now I hold within my hands
twice as much as I had known.
Distance
by Mario Odekerken
Between our voices
a silence shaped like winter
soft,immeasurable
you are still close in my mind
yet galaxies pull us wide.
American war Cemetery Margraten
by Mario Odekerken
Silent stones align,
whispers of lost lives remain,
fields hold grief and peace.
Names etched in the earth's cold heart,
memory guards the still night.
Valentinstag im Herzen
by Mario Odekerken
Am stillen Wintertag,
trägt mein Herz deinen Namen,
sanft wie Morgetau.
Dein Blick schenkt mir warmes Licht,
Liebe wächst in jedem Atem.
Valentine's Evening
by Evelyn Judy Buehler
Two hearts sunset red
chocolates scarlet bouquet.
Romantic evening
Blue night birds singing starlit
yellow moon on jade hill sits.
Sunrise
by Evelyn Judy Buehler
In huge purple blooms
ancestor of ancestors,
sun streaked cro magnon!
The whispering lime green leaves
told secrets of fragrant breeze.
Welcome 2026
by Mario Odekerken
New year opens wide
quiet hopes in slow motion
days undecided
we step forward without maps
learning as we keep going.
Auf Wiedersehen 2025
by Mario Odekerken
Auf Wiedersehen,Jahr
voll Fragen und leiser Schritte
Zeit legt Spuren ab
wir nehmen nur das Wesentliche
und gehen weiter vorwärts.
