Both Doll and Girl Have Hair of Jet

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

The childless woman,

How tender she is to black

Hair on little dolls.

~ Ransetsu

[Englished by R. H. Blyth and Phillip Whidden]

The little girl is made for dolls and not

The other way around.  Her mother makes

It so, her father too.  The doll is bought

For her and she is made for baking cakes

And cherry pies.  She dreams of dresses, silk

And satin since this girl is made for them.

She does not know this truth and guesses silk

Is made for her.  She grows then from the stem

Ordained for her, for pleasing men as toy

And pretty pleasure.  She does not know yet

That she was made for this.  A nearby boy

Born years before her thinks of her as pet.

  Her happiness depends on hugging this.

    Unthinkingly she moves to meet his kiss.

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