Bleak House?

Whether this is sad or hopeful is down to the reader's view. I leave it to your outer and inner eyes.

Although the wind
Izumi Shikibu

Although the wind
blows terribly here,
the moonlight also leaks
between the roof planks
of this ruined house.

The Things I Want Decided
Izumi Shikibu
translated by Jane Hirshfield with Mariko Aratani

Which shouldn’t exist
in this world,
the one who forgets
or the one
who is forgotten?

Which is better,
to love
one who has died
or not to see
each other when you are alive?

Which is better,
the distant lover
you long for
or the one you see daily
without desire?

Which is the least unreliable
among fickle things-
the swift rapids,
a flowing river,
or this human world?

That Which is Sought

As I dig for wild orchids
In the autumn fields.
It is the deeply bedded root
that I desire,
Not the flower.

Izumi Shikibu, Japan (974-1034)

No Forgetting

a poem by Izumi Shikibu
At the Temple Ceremony for Her Departed Daughter
translated by Jane Hirshfield with Mariko Aratani

Unendurable grief.
For not so brief an instant
as that between the notes
of the monk's bell
will I forget you.