Maya McOmie: 道成寺 Dōjō-ji

道成寺 Dōjō-ji
    After a picture from the Dōjō-ji Engi Emaki depicting a
    woman who has turned into a 40-foot serpent

I died and was reborn, but now
I feel more alive than ever.
My scaly flanks wrap around
the large bell, cold surface
not warming to my cold blood
heart. Why is he so afraid?
I’m in a rage. Lust carries
me through, nourishes.
These sensations, nothing like
I’ve ever felt before, I could
bathe in it. My fire is deathly
cold. So cold it burns to touch.
The frigidity of a broken promise,
and now, a broken bell.
My heart overreaches my body,
and in a flash everything ignites:
iron, flesh, and desire. A rebirth.
I can still smell his sweated
brow, the heat in his heavy
breathing lungs. Now, we’re closer
than ever. I can unskein, slink
each stretch of muscle winding
back to another breath of myth,
another versed world.

道成寺 Dōjō-ji
道成寺縁起絵巻より

息たえて生き返ったけど
今は前よりも生きている
鱗で覆われた体で巨大な鐘を包み込む
冷えた表面は冷血な心臓では温まらない
彼はなぜそこまで怖がるの
怒り湧き上がる
愛欲によって突き抜けられる
はぐくまれる
この覚えのない数々の感覚
のぼせるくらい
私の炎は恐ろしく冷たい
触れたら焼けてしまうほどに
儚い誓いは破られ
今や壊れた鐘
心臓が体を通り越し
一瞬の閃光で全てを焼き尽くす
銅、身、そして欲
再生
彼の汗ばんだ額の匂い
強く呼吸する肺の熱
まだ感じる
今までにないこの距離間
体が持つ筋繊維を
一つ一つほどき
前とは異なる神話の呼吸に
蛇行しながら忍び戻る
異なる詩歌の世界に

Note: “道成寺 Dōjō-ji,” as the epigraph states, was inspired by a scene from the Dōjō-ji Engi Emaki depicting a scene from a story told in the Konjaku Monogatarishū. It is also a bilingual poem, where the English version is accompanied by the same text in Japanese translated by the poet.