Winter Walk
Chris (growing fruit)
I think always of you.
Come to me at night.
For on the path of dreams
There is no one to disapprove.
Ono no Komachi is one of the Rokkasen — the six poetic immortals of Japan’s Heian era — and the only woman among the six. Little is actually known about her life; there is some speculation Komachi was a consort of relatively low rank, or perhaps a lady-in-waiting at the court of the Emperor Ninmyō, but nobody really knows. Little attention was given to the lives of women in 9th century Japan.
She is said to have been a great beauty, and to have taken many lovers throughout her life. She’s also said to have lost that beauty as she aged, and was abandoned by all those lovers. She is said to have ended her days as an impoverished old woman, left with nothing but memories and her poetry.
Nobody recalls the names of any of her lovers. But eleven centuries after her death Ono no Komachi is still highly regarded as a poet.
On the path of dreams there is no one to disapprove.
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