River of Stars (Amanogawa) (1999)

Part One
Tenor:
	the moon is full	tsuki wa saerushi
	the night is very still	yo wa shin shin to
	my heart beats	kokoro bososa yo
	like a bell	kane no koe
Trans. By Kenneth Rexroth            Anonymous
Duplum:
	immersed in my hot	yuami sura
	bath, like a lovely lily	izumi no soko no
	growing in a spring	sayuri-bana
	my twenty-year-old body—	hatachi no natsu o
	so beautiful, so sublime	utsukushi to minu
Trans. By Sam Hamill and KeikoYosano Akiko Matsui Gibson
Triplum:
	gently, I open the	chibusa osae
	door to eternal	shinpi no tobari
	mystery, the flowers	soto kerinu
	of my breasts, cupped	kokonaru hana no
	offered with both my hands	kurenai zo koki
Trans. By Sam Hamill and Keiko Yosano Akiko Matsui Gibson
Quadruplum:
	tell them	hanshin ni
	she is enjoying the view	usukurenai no
	of the moon	usumono no
	a pink gossamer robe	koromo matoite
	barely covering her body	tsuki miru to ie
Trans. by Makoto Ueda Yosano Akiko
Refrain
Tenor:
	amidst the notes	koto no ne ni
	of my koto is another	kyosho no oto no
	deep mysterious tone,	uchi majiru
	a sound that comes from	kono ayashisa mo
	within my own breast	mune no hibiki zo
Trans. By Kenneth Rexroth Yosano Akiko
Duplum:
	I finger the	erimoto no
	lace on my collar	resu o ijiru
	until night, when you	hanabira o
	turn over my petals	anata ga mekutte kureru yoru made
Translated by Leza Lowitz, Miyuki  Hayashi Amari Aoyama, and Akemi Tomioka
Part Two
	in bright spring sunshine	haru no hi o
	adoring lovers recline	koi ni taru yoru
	against a white wall	shira-kaba zo
	a lonely stranger watches	uki wa tabi no ko
	dusk enters the wisteria	fuji tasogaruru
Trans. By Sam Hamill and Keiko Yosano Akiko Matsui Gibson
Tenor:
	I saw a young girl	orakani
	naked	kurokise mi sete
	steering a boat	isanayuku
	across an open sea	kami ho no mi no
	it was only the moon	akatsuki tsukiyo
	of a summer night
Trans. By Glenn Hughes and               Yosano Akiko                         Yozan T. Iwasaki
Duplum:
	I hold your head tight	anata no atama wo watashi no
	between my thighs and press	mata ni shikkari hasami
	against your mouth and	anata no kuchi ni watashio tsuyoku
	float away forever in	oshishitsukeru to, watashi wa
	an orchid boat	ran no hana no fune ni notte
	on the river of heaven	tokoshie ni tengoku no kawa wo tadayotte yuku
Trans. By Kenneth Rexroth Marichiko
Triplum:
	the peony in her hair	kasashitaru
	flared up, setting the ocean on fire	botan hi to nari umi moenu
	the dream of a woman	omoi midaruru
	whose thoughts are in a frenzy	hito no ko no yume
Trans. By Makoto Ueda Yosano Akiko
Quadruplum:
	warm wine	kuchi utsusareshi
	from his mouth	nuruki wain ga
	to mine	hita hita to
	lapping against me	ware wo kumanaku
	radiating through me	hakkoh saseru
Trans. by Leza Lowitz, Miyuki           Matsudaira Meiko                         Aoyama, and Akemi Tomioka
Part Three
	feeling that	nanitonaku
	you were waiting for me,	kimi ni mataruru
	I went out into the flowering fields	kokochi shite
	and found -	ideshi hana  no no
	the new moon	yuzukuyo kana
Trans. By Sam Hamill and Keiko  Yosano Akiko  Matsui Gibson
	the river of stars	amanogawa
	begins to part high	soine no toko no
	in the Milky Way while	tobari-goshi ni
	through the curtains of our bed	hoshi no wakare o
	I lied awake and watched	sukashi miru kana
Trans. By Sam Hamill and Keiko Yosano Akiko   Matsui Gibson
Refrain
Tenor:
	the moon is full	tsuki wa saerushi
	the night is very still	yo wa shin shin to
	my heart beats	kokoro bososa yo
	like a bell	kane no koe
Trans. By Kenneth Rexroth    Anonymous
Duplum:
	amidst the notes	koto no ne ni
	of my koto is another	kyosho no oto no
	deep mysterious tone,	uchi majiru
	a sound that comes from	kono ayashisa mo
	within my own breast	mune no hibiki zo
Trans. By Kenneth Rexroth        Yosano Akiko

Special thanks to Toshie Marra, librarian in the East Asian Library at UCLA, for helping to locate the original Japanese texts for several of the poems, and to Chika Kawahara, and Maki Tauchi, for their invaluable help in translating and locating several of the poems.