Short Poems

The mallow-flower by the road
Was eaten by a (passing) horse.

Ah, summer grasses wave!
The warriors' brave deeds were a dream!

I would keep peerless Mount Fuji
A special sight for New Year's Day.

Like the rattan-whip
That the headsman of the mountain
Wears fastened at his thigh,
To the limbs of one that should love me
Would that I were pressed!

Granted this dew-drop world is but
A dew-drop world—this granted, yet …

The well-bucket taken away
By the morning glory—
Alas, water to beg!

Quick-falling dew,
Ah, let me cleanse in you
This wretched life.

Collecting all the rains of May,
How swiftly flows the Mogami!

Thought, whose hard strife only midnight may see,
Prayeth, O Music, to rest him with thee.
Feeling, oppressed by the day's garish light,
Turneth, O Music, to thee in her flight.

Yellow and white chrysanthemums;
Would that there were no other names!