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larryhammerFor Poetry Monday:
Kyoto, Yone Noguchi
Mist-born Kyoto, the city of scent and prayer,
Like a dream half-fading, she lingers on:
The oldest song of a forgotten pagoda bell
Is the Kamo river’s twilight song.
The girls, half whisper and half love,
As old as a straying moon beam,
Flutter on the streets gods built,
Lightly carrying Spring and passion.
“Stop a while with me,” I said.
They turned their powdered necks. How delicious!
“No, thank you, some other time,” they replied.
Oh, such a smile like the breath of a rose!
Noguchi Yonejirō, who wrote in English as Yone Noguchi, was a Japanese writer in both English and Japanese, and his poetry and essays from, especially, the first two decades of the 20th century were influential on both Ezra Pound and W.B. Yeats. This poem was published in 1908, shortly after he returned to Japan after living in the United States for over a decade.
---L.
Subject quote from Creep, Radiohead. (bonus PMJ cover)
Kyoto, Yone Noguchi
Mist-born Kyoto, the city of scent and prayer,
Like a dream half-fading, she lingers on:
The oldest song of a forgotten pagoda bell
Is the Kamo river’s twilight song.
The girls, half whisper and half love,
As old as a straying moon beam,
Flutter on the streets gods built,
Lightly carrying Spring and passion.
“Stop a while with me,” I said.
They turned their powdered necks. How delicious!
“No, thank you, some other time,” they replied.
Oh, such a smile like the breath of a rose!
Noguchi Yonejirō, who wrote in English as Yone Noguchi, was a Japanese writer in both English and Japanese, and his poetry and essays from, especially, the first two decades of the 20th century were influential on both Ezra Pound and W.B. Yeats. This poem was published in 1908, shortly after he returned to Japan after living in the United States for over a decade.
---L.
Subject quote from Creep, Radiohead. (bonus PMJ cover)
no subject
Date: 24 June 2025 11:56 am (UTC)(side note: always interesting what things people pick out to be the defining characteristics of a place!)
You have this tagged "meme"--what's the meme aspect?
no subject
Date: 24 June 2025 02:48 pm (UTC)I tag all Poetry Monday posts that.