Japanese Poets - Ono no Komachi

If you're familiar at all with classical Japanese poetry, then you probably already know about Ono no Komachi...but if you're not, then read on. :P

Ono no Komachi was a poet during the Heian period, and she was described as an amazingly beautiful woman. She had many suitors, and there is a story of one particular suitor -- Shii no Shosho -- who she agreed to see if he would visit where she lived every night for 100 nights...but the suitor fell ill and died on the 99th night.

source

I love her poetry, and this one is probably one of my favorites and one of the ones she is most famous for:

思ひつつ 

寝ればや人の 

見えつらむ 

夢と知りせば 

覚めざらまし

Did you come to see me

because I dropped off to sleep

tormented by love?

If I had known I dreamed,

I would not have awakened.

(--McCullough's translation.)