A swaying branch--a leaf that fell
To earth.

_Pillar-Print, Masonobu_

He stands irresolute
Cloaking the light of his lantern.

Tonight he will either find new love or a sword-thrust,
But his soul is troubled with ghosts of old regret.

Like vines with crimson flowers
They climb
Upwards
Into his heart.

_The Young Daimyo_

When he first came out to meet me,
He had just been girt with the two swords;
And I found he was far more interested in the glitter of their hilts,
And did not even compare my kiss to a cherry-blossom.

_Masonubu--Early_

She was a dream of moons, of fluttering handkerchiefs,
Of flying leaves, of parasols,
A riddle made to break my heart;
The lightest impulse
To her was more dear than the deep-toned temple bell.
She fluttered to my sword-hilt an instant,
And then flew away;
But who will spend all day chasing a butterfly?

_The Beautiful Geisha_

Swift waves hissing
Under the moonlight;
Tarnished silver.

Swaying boats
Under the moonlight,
Gold lacquered prows.

Is it a vision
Under the moonlight?
No, it is only
A beautiful geisha swaying down the street.

_A Young Girl_

Out of the rings and the bubbles,
The curls and the swirls of the water,
Out of the crystalline shower of drops shattered in play,
Her body and her thoughts arose.

She dreamed of some lover
To whom she might offer her body
Fresh and cool as a flower born in the rain.

[Illustration]

_The Heavenly Poetesses_

In their bark of bamboo reeds
The heavenly poetesses
Float across the sky.

Poems are falling from them
Swift as the wind that shakes the lance-like bamboo leaves;
The stars close around like bubbles
Stirred by the silver oars of poems passing.

_The Old Love and the New_

Beware, for the dying vine can hold
The strongest oak.

Only by cutting at the root
Can love be altered.

Late in the night
A rosy glimmer yet defies the darkness.

But the evening is growing late,
The blinds are being lowered;
She who held your heart and charmed you
Is only a rosy glimmer of flame remembered.

_Fugitive Thoughts_

My thoughts are sparrows passing
Through one great wave that breaks
In bubbles of