gold on a black motionless rock.

_Disappointment_

Rain rattles on the pavement,
Puddles stand in the bluish stones;
Afar in the Yoshiwara
Is she who holds my heart.

Alas, the torn lantern of my hope
Trembles and sputters in the rain.

_The Traitor_

I saw him pass at twilight;
He was a dark cloud travelling
Over palace roofs
With one claw drooping.

In his face were written ages
Of patient treachery
And the knowledge of his hour.

One dainty thrust, no more
Than this, he needs.

_The Fop_

His heart is like a wind
Torn between cloud and butterfly;
Whether he will roll passively to one,
Or chase endlessly the other.

_Changing Love_

My love for her at first was like the smoke that drifts
Across the marshes
From burning woods.

But, after she had gone,
It was like the lotus that lifts up
Its heart shaped buds from the dim waters.

_In Exile_

My heart is mournful as thunder moving
Through distant hills
Late on a long still night of autumn.

My heart is broken and mournful
As rain heard beating
Far off in the distance
While earth is parched more near.

On my heart is the black badge of exile;
I droop over it,
I accept its shame.

_The True Conqueror_

He only can bow to men
Lofty as a god
To those beneath him,
Who has taken sins and sorrows
And whose deathless spirit leaps
Beneath them like a golden carp in the torrent.

_Spring Love_

Through the weak spring rains
Two lovers walk together,
Holding together the parasol.

But the laughing rains of spring
Will break the weak green shoots of their love.

His will grow a towering stalk,
Hers, a cowering flower under it.

_The Endless Lament_

Spring rain falls through the cherry blossom,
In long blue shafts
On grasses strewn with delicate stars.

The summer rain sifts through the drooping willow,
Shatters the courtyard
Leaving grey pools.

The autumn rain drives through the maples
Scarlet threads of sorrow,
Towards the snowy earth.

Would that the rains of all the winters
Might wash away my grief!

_Toyonobu. Exile's Return_

The cranes have come back to the temple,
The winds are flapping the flags ab