Short Poems

Words and acts
of love yet done
and now, too soon, it's dawn:
what of those “long
autumn nights”?

Dwelling to the east
and south of the capital,
in Uji Hills I live:
some say I've forsaken
their sad world.

My house is
at the foot of Miwa Mountain:
should fondness call,
please visit the gate
where cedars stand.

So be it, let me
live out my life
here in Sugawara Fushimi,
lest my old home go
sadly to ruin.

Where might I find
distaste for this world?
In pastures and hills alike
my heart yearns

Not changing color
yet fading all the same:
such is the flower of
the heart of one who survives
this world of love.

Just as the morning sky
is brightening to dawn,
how sad that we must
sort our robes

For me, not long
enough at all:
autumn nights have always
taken their measure
from the depths of one's love.

Autumn nights, long
only in name:
let's meet, we say,
yet dawn comes to part us
before we've begun.

Into the mist, glowing with dawn,
across the Bay of Akashi
a boat carries my thoughts
into hiding,
islands beyond.