Source:

GENJI MONOGATARI: TALES OF LOVE

He can only guess
at the rain drops which are so close,
at the chill which is obscuring the distance,
at the wind which tells
about drought,
the age of drought,
and the warmth which made him old.

Once he want to love a woman
a woman who was limpid, so limpid as teardrop
a woman who was pale, so pale as silk
but, there is something which was already hidden,
always unsaid, even with longing,
and then frozen in biography
faded in albums
in memories
dan fears,
and then emerged a story:

I.
Once upon a time, Chujo was all the colors
all the happiness which arose in the twilight
and she was a thief
in the aphrodisiac garden

--and I think, even Izrail
could not hate her--

Long time ago, Chujo was an Olympian queen,
a bunch of ambrosia
the food of gods

--but time reversed his route—

Only at a glance?

He wanted to love forever
and he hate images
but the sun refused
and The King did not permit him

And then the light, and the weather, changed her

And gradually, Chujo became images
magical paintings in the skull,
until in the end, Chujo was but the aroma of hashish

and a twilight replaced by another twilight
distance, road, event, word, vocabulary,
till he knew, nothing was to be redeemed:
the petal only becoming older

II.

The wind which rotates the Sun,
exploring from silence to silence,
reached me together with many images,
and filled my lung, with your breath

O virgin, the girl which was made from the color of the cloud,
with the marble face
drain me, squeeze me
till new buds grow,
perfuming our bodies

O girl, the virgin who understood the curse of the world
in your lips the angels lose their way:
sowing graces
or anathemas…

(Original poem -- © Zaim Rofiqi)

Notes:

• Genji is the protagonist of Murasaki Shikibu's important Heian-era Japanese novel The Tale of Genji. The story describes him as a superbly handsome man and a genius. Genji is the second son of a Japanese emperor, but he is relegated to civilian life for political reasons and lives as an imperial officer.

• This poem is inspired by the Murasaki Shikibu's Novel: "The Tale of Genji".

(Original poetry. All rights reserved -- © Zaim Rofiqi)

Source:

================