ng branches.

There is faint sound of quavering strings,
The reedy murmurs of a flute,
The soft sigh of the wind through silken garments;

All these are mingled
With the breeze that drifts away,
Filled with thin petals of cherry blossom,
Like tinkling laughter dancing away in sunlight.

_Court Lady Standing Under Cherry Tree_

She is an iris,
Dark purple, pale rose,
Under the gnarled boughs
That shatter their stars of bloom.
She waves delicately
With the movement of the tree.

Of what is she dreaming?

Of long nights lit with orange lanterns,
Of wine cups and compliments and kisses of the two-sword men.
And of dawn when weary sleepers
Lie outstretched on the mats of the palace,
And of the iris stalk that is broken in the fountain.

_Court Lady Standing Under a Plum Tree_

Autumn winds roll through the dry leaves
On her garments;
Autumn birds shiver
Athwart star-hung skies.
Under the blossoming plum-tree,
She expresses the pilgrimage
Of grey souls passing,
Athwart love's scarlet maples
To the ash-strewn summit of death.

_A Beautiful Woman_

Iris-amid-clouds
Must be her name.

Tall and lonely as the mountain-iris,
Cold and distant.

She has never known longing:
Many have died for love of her.

_A Reading_

"And the prince came to the craggy rock
But saw only hissing waves
So he rested all day amid them."

He listens idly,
He is content with her voice.

He dreams it is the murmur
Of distant wave-caps breaking
Upon the painted screen.

_An Actor as a Dancing Girl_

The peony dancer
Swirls orange folds of dusty robes
Through the summer.

They are spotted with thunder showers,
Falling upon the crimson petals.

Heavy blooms
Breaking and spilling fiery cups
Drowsily.

_Josan No Miya_

She is a fierce kitten leaping in sunlight
Towards the swaying boughs.

She is a gust of wind,
Bending in parallel curves the boughs of the willow-tree.

_An Oiran and her Kamuso_

Gilded hummingbirds are whizzing
Through the palace garden,
Deceived by the jade petals
Of the Emperor's jewel-trees.

_Two Ways of Love_

The wind half blows her robes,
That subside
Listlessly
As swayin