An untitled poem by Izumi Shikibu (970-1030), translated from the Japanese by Jane Hirshfield and Mariko Aratani:
Although
the cricket’s song
has no words,
still,
it sounds like sorrow.
(Untitled poem from The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono No Komachi and Izumi Shikibu,Women of the Ancient Court of Japan, translated by Jane Hirshfield and Mariko Aratani. © 1990 by Jane Hirshfield. Reprinted with the permission of the translators and Vintage Books, A Division of Random House. Image via Flickr user Sergiy Tkachenko)
The Dish 