Offer up
cherry blossoms
to the deceased,
if anyone wishes to mourn me
after I'm gone.

Give me a boy whose tender skin
Owes its fresh bloom to youth, not art;
And for his sake may no girl win
A corner in my heart.

The gifts that to our breasts we fold
— Are brightened by our losses.
The sweetest joys a heart can hold
— Grow up between its crosses.
And on life's pathway many a mile
— Is made more glad and cheery,
Because, for just a little while,
— The way seemed dark and dreary.

The Germans, in Greek,
Are sadly to seek;
Not five in five score,
But ninety-five more,--
All, save only Hermann,
And Hermann's a German.

George the First was always reckoned
Vile, but viler George the Second;
And what mortal ever heard
Any good of George the Third?
When from earth the Fourth descended
(God be praised!) the Georges ended.

Funny, how Felicia Ropps
Always handles things in shops!
Always pinching, always poking,
Always feeling, always stroking
Things she has no right to touch!
Goops like that annoy me much!

A full moon on the night of the seventeenth:
this is the first time it has happened in years.
There is a drought now, no clouds in the sky:
I can see each hair on the rabbit!

Fruitful Earth drinks up the rain,
Trees from Earth drink that again,
The Sea drinks the Air, the Sun
Drinks the Sea, and him the Moon:
Is it reason then d'ee think
I should thirst when all else drink?

The fruit of all the service that I serve
Despair doth reap, such hapless hap have I.
But though he have no power to make me swerve,
Yet, by the fire, for cold I feel I die.
In paradise, for hunger still I sterve;
And, in the flood, for thirst to death I dry.
So Tantalus am I, and in worse pain
Amids my help, and helpless doth remain.

From the top of Dragon Gate
I gaze down at West Lake:
Wu Tzu-hsü's hill, townsman's retreat,
props me from behind.
A sound of flute wafts on fragrant breeze
from amongst the lotus:
my soul melts, bit by bit,
at this scene within a painting.