Izumi Shikibu

If I could read a poem, I would read Watching The Moon by Izumi Shikibu

.

Watching the moon

at midnight,

solitary, mid-sky,

I knew myself completely,

no part left out.

I would read it in a whisper.

As it happens, I hate my voice because I sound like a man and my accent is horrible.

Izumi Shikibu was a Japanese poet who is estimated to have lived around 1000 CE. She was a politician and a courtier.

Here another of her poems:

Although the wind
blows terribly here,
the moonlight also leaks
between the roof planks
of this ruined house.