Themes Of Longing, Selections From The Ink Dark Moon Sting...

Interwoven with themes of longing, impermanence and loneliness, selections from The Ink Dark Moon sting with forbidden love and savor of bitterness, while exploring the intricately beautiful characteristics of human emotion. Although the selected poems are brief and concise - conforming to the characteristics of brevity and succinct language in traditional ancient Japanese poetry - the carefully selected words and painstakingly constructed phrases elicit a marked emotional response in the reader. Utilizing literary devices such as vivid descriptive imagery, metaphor and symbolism, the authors explore piercingly poignant emotional experiences through the lens of nature and the exploration of Buddhist ideologies. Beginning with a stark comparison of mankind and nature, the first selection by Ono No Komachi exemplifies the use of naturalistic themes and impermanence in ancient Japanese poetry. Komachi contrasts â€Å"hunting lanterns,† (p. 41, line 1) with the mountain on which the hunting has taken place, bringing to mind imagery of an abandoned mountain once brimming with hunters. The author utilizes this imagery as a means through which to demonstrate the speaker’s own loneliness and feelings of abandonment after the initial excitement-laden stages of love have subsided. Additionally, Komachi’s utilization of nature as a recurring motif throughout the poem exemplifies the Buddhist idea of object impermanence. However, although impermanence related to the idea of transience and