Short Poems

Sheath of spreading
moonlight one would
almost take for ice,
flocks of teal circling
the poles of the fishermen's frames

I look out
from the cloudless mountain
at moonlight on the sea,
its islands so many rents
in a sheet of ice

On a little ridge
of evergreens
where two rivers meet,
woodsmen on the rocks —
how cool they must be!

In this lodging
that no one visits,
where no one comes to call,
from the moon in the trees
beams of light come poking in

My thoughts keep
growing lusher,
like summertime weeds,
though the sadness of autumn surfeit
I know lies ahead

Now I understand —
when you said " Remember! "
and swore to do the same,
already you had it
in mind to forget

When I gaze at it
these days,
lost in thoughts of love,
how deeply the moon's hue
seems dyed in sorrow

Does the moon say " Grieve! "
does it force
these thoughts on me?
And yet the tears come
to my reproving eyes

Does this love of mine
face one way only,
never perversely straying?
Rather it is the lemon grass in the meadow,
tossed in ever-shifting winds

Moon-viewings in the capital
when I thought
such sad thoughts —
now I know they were no more
than idle pastimes