A woman poet of the ninth century, counted among both the Six Poetic Geniuses and the Thirty-Six Immortals. Her origins are obscure, but she seems to have served at court in the mid-800s. Eighteen of her poems appear in the Kokinshū, most of them love poems that turn dreams and longing into intricate, passionate verse. Legends of her extraordinary beauty and lonely old age later made her the heroine of countless tales and Noh plays.
花の色は うつりにけりな いたづらに
わが身世にふる ながめせしまに
Hana no iro wa utsurinikeri na itazura ni / waga mi yo ni furu nagame seshi ma ni
The color of the cherry blossoms has faded away in vain while the long rains fell — just as my own beauty has, while I sat lost in idle thought.
岩の上に 旅寝をすれば いと寒し
苔の衣を 我に貸さなむ（小町）
世をそむく 苔の衣は ただ一重
かさねばうとし いざ二人寝む（遍昭）
Sleeping on this rock as a traveler, the night is bitter cold — / will you not lend me your robe of moss? (Komachi) / One who has left the world owns but a single robe of moss — / not to lend it would be unkind; come, let us sleep together. (Henjō)