PREFACE

no poems like these in the Kojiki or Nihon Shoki or Kokinshu or Manyoshu or the hyakunin-isshu or be they like the kouta of the Mouromachi period or the imayo of the Heian nor of the Wani or Kai groups nor the Arechi poets
or sung by Sei Shonagon or Ise no tayu or KojijuOno no Komachi or the Thirty-six Immortal Women Poets No poems like these as sweet as the song birds in love no poems in tanka or waka or haiku or senryu neither wouldst thee fined their twins in the shintaishi Theses poems be impressionist poems of love imagism of sensuality