Invisible Cinema

"I was asked what I wanted to do with the moon . . . "

"Yet I understood the poetry of such mind games one day when, attempting to ask for my glasses (lunettes), I was asked what I wanted to do with the moon (lune)."

- Jean-Dominique Bauby, THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY

Written on the sky . . .

"The white chrysanthemum

Is disguised by the first frost.

If I wanted to pick one

I could find it only by chance."

-- Oshikochi No Mitsune

*

"I went out in the Spring

To gather the young herbs.

So many petals were falling

Drifting in confused flight

That I lost my way."

-- Ki No Tsurayuki

 

From:  WRITTEN ON THE SKY: Japanese poems, translated by Kenneth Rexroth