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You know, I don't think I've ever seen a copy of Yoshitoshi's Sotoba no Komachi for sale and I probably wouldn't have bought it in my giddy thirties even if I had. But that's really a wonderful picture. This is the great beauty Ono no Komachi, she of the famous hana no iro:
as the color of the blossoms
has lost its luster
to no avail
so I have passed through life
gazing at the rains
'heartless beauty mourns her futile life and her vanished beauty' etc etc.
Yes, well-- *look* at her. In Yoshitoshi's picture she's smiling. Possibly 'I can smile at the old days/ I was beautiful then' but equally possibly 'there's still beauty left around me and it ain't bad at all.'
as the color of the blossoms
has lost its luster
to no avail
so I have passed through life
gazing at the rains
'heartless beauty mourns her futile life and her vanished beauty' etc etc.
Yes, well-- *look* at her. In Yoshitoshi's picture she's smiling. Possibly 'I can smile at the old days/ I was beautiful then' but equally possibly 'there's still beauty left around me and it ain't bad at all.'
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