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Although I come to you constantly
over the roads of dreams,
those nights of love
are not worth one waking touch of you.

— Ono no Komachi Women Poets of Japan (1982)

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More quotes by Ono no Komachi

Imperceptible
It withers in the world,
This flower-like human heart.

One Hundred Poems from the Japanese (1955)

The flowers and my love
Passed away under the rain,
While I idly looked upon them
Where is my yester-love?

Yone Noguchi's The Spirit of Japanese Poetry (1914)

I fell asleep thinking of him,
and he came to me.
If I had known it was only a dream
I would never have awakened.

Women Poets of Japan (1982)

Autumn nights, it seems,
are long by repute alone:
scarcely had we met
when morning's first light appeared,
leaving everything unsaid.

Kokin Wakashū: The First Imperial Anthology of Japanese Poetry (1985)

Following the roads
Of dream to you, my feet
Never rest. But one glimpse of you
In reality would be
Worth all these many nights of love.

One Hundred More Poems from the Japanese (1976)

All Ono no Komachi quotes →

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Not for the body, but for the heart; companion and company are needed.

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Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies,
And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.

Alexander Pope

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Ono no Komachi (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.