Shinko Fushimi is a professor of the Aikoku Gakuen University in Japan. Her research interests include the comparative study of translation of waka in The Tale of Genji; modern Japanese literature in the light of modern western critical theories; and Jane Austen. She received the Academic Award of the ISAS (the Synergy of Arts and Sciences) on her study of translation of waka (tanka) in the Tale of Genji in 2009.
Teaching about foreign affairs,
she heard fighters launched from the base nearby
Between the photo portraits of Maria Theresia and Marie Antoinette
the clock counted noon on the autumnal equinox day
The entangled wisteria vines
creeping and climbing the bank
grow out toward the other side
Wind roaring
the river running rapidly
the wisteria rides upon the winds to the other side
Family or work, life or job?
Who asks these questions of men?
I want both
Your old bath towel lies in the drawer
—A cicada shell
red dragonflies
shaping a staff notation
in the blue sky.
The hedges were tattered
by the storm of early spring
by the military boots
up over the blue sky
deep into the dark universe,
Zen circle shapes perfect
on a black hole
