Filmmaker: Bruno Gaspar

Two Tanka by Ono no Komachi

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A video by Portuguese artist Bruno Gaspar illustrating a tanka by Ono no Komachi. Here’s an English version:

It’s too cold to sleep
in this lodging on the way
to Iwanoue.
Oh monk, if it’s all the same to you,
could I borrow your robes?

And here’s a short film by Bryan Lacey. The interplay between the classical Japanese poem and modern folk/country song certainly creates an interesting mood, and one worlds away from the original court milieu.

Multiple English versions of the tanka in this video — Ono no Komachi’s most famous poem — are collected here.