Short Poems

Add but a handle to the moon,
And what a pretty fan it makes!

How I regret my fallen friends
How I despise my foes!
And, tired of life, I only seek
To reach my long day's close,
And gain at last repose.

Lakka-trees ripen two by two
And mandarin-ducks die side by side.
If a true-hearted girl will love only her husband,
In a life as faithfully lived as theirs,
What troubling wave can arrive to vex
A spirit like water in a timeless well?

What bark impell'd by autumn's fresh'ning gale
Comes speeding t'ward me?—'Tis the wild-geese driv'n
Across the fathomless expanse of Heav'n,
And lifting up their voices for a sail!

Oh! rippling River Izumi,
That flows through Mika plain,
Why should the maid I saw but now
And soon shall see again
Torment my love-sick brain?

His heart, a hidden fountain, whence there ran
Through the hushed tenor of reclusive days,
Deep love of Nature, and the Soul of man,
In stately song and in melodious lays.

As years drift on and joys decline,
And life, grown gray with duty,
Sees no more sparkle on the wine,
Nor on the lips of beauty,
How blest is he whose soul can keep
The sacred flame still gleaming,
That makes our days one mystic sleep
Of hoping and of dreaming!

The clouds drift and the rivers flow,
Not caring how nor where they go,
And ev'ry sound of action seems
Like fairy music heard in dreams.
Why should we fret our peace away,
Who have so little time to stay?
Since Nature, with so much to do,
Can rest, let us be idle, too.

Throughout Yamato
May there grow abundantly
That wisdom-yielding
Herb which springs from secret seed,
Pregnant in the heart of man.

In summer evenings,
While I wait the rising moon,
And garden plants are
Being watered, fresh and fair,
Anxious thoughts no more molest.