The Hem of Your Kimono

If only I could tie
The string of my kite
To the hem of your kimono

Chiyo-ni, trans Patricia Donegan


In one of Chiyo’s fluid (and erotic!) haiku, we can follow the syntax to locate the sections in this translation: lines 1 and 2 make a unit, then there's the prepositional phrase that completes the sentence.

Reading this haiku is like watching a figure emerge from the brush of a painter! Except that it’s a rare painting that becomes so upclose and personal—or is it?

As for the analogies informing the poem: The "hem" is to Zoka as the kite is to the poet: zoka consciousness "takes in" the hem the way a person "takes in" a kite -- with a "tie"; otherwise it will fly away in the (Spring) breeze.

Zoka sees the hem of the kimono as full of energy and independence, perhaps as an emodiment of the spirit of the lovely “you” addressed by Chiyo.

Seeing the hem in light of zoka saves the poem from being merely sexy, though it is delightfully that: zoka as The Creative loves to see "things" in their act of being, and this hem must fly!

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