Lodestar Quarterly

Lodestar Quarterly
Figure reaching for a star Issue 17 • Spring 2006 • Featured Lodestar Writer • Poetry

Cats

Ihara Saikaku

With no care for duty or people
Or strange looks or the opinion of other cats
One striped and the other white
Go on the edge of the roof
Or climb to the ridge of it.

Driven by the need of love
Which is stronger than death.

One day the wind of autumn shall come
And they will not know each other.
My soul, I envy the love of cats.

Ihara Saikaku

Ihara Saikaku (1642-1693) was one of 17th-century Japan's most illustrious writers. He excelled in describing the life of the samurai. Among his books translated into English are Five Women Who Loved Love, an erotic novel first published in 1686, and This Scheming World, a humorous look at the common people of Japan's Edo period.

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