iver,
People are resting like still boats
Tugging uneasily at their cramped chains.

Some are moving slowly
Like the easy winds:

Brown-blue, dull-green, the villages in the distance
Sleep on the banks of the river:
The waters sullenly clash and murmur.
The chatter of the passersby,
Is dulled beneath the grey unquiet sky.

_Yoshiwara Festival_

The green and violet peacocks
With golden tails
Parade.

Beneath the fluttering jangling streamers
They walk
Violet and gold.

The green and violet peacocks
Through the golden dusk
Showered upon them from the vine-hung lanterns,
Stately, nostalgically,
Parade.

_Sharaku Dreams_

I will scrawl on the walls of the night
Faces.

Leering, sneering, scowling, threatening faces;
Weeping, twisting, yelling, howling faces;
Faces fixed in a contortion between a scream and a laugh,
Meaningless faces.

I will cover the walls of night
With faces,
Till you do not know
If these faces are but masks, or you the masks for them.

Faces too grotesque for laughter,
Faces too shattered by pain for tears,
Faces of such ugliness
That the ugliness grows beauty.

They will haunt you morning, evening,
Burning, burning, ever returning.
Their own infamy creating,
Till you strike at life and hate it,
Burn your soul up so in hating.

I will scrawl on the walls of the night
Faces,
Pitiless,
Flaring,
Staring.

_A Life_

Her life was like a swiftly rushing stream
Green and scarlet,
Falling into darkness.

The seasons passed for her,
Like pale iris wilting,
Or peonies flying to ribbons before the storm-gusts.
The sombre pine-tops waited until the seasons had passed.

Then in her heart they grew
The snows of changeless winter
Stirred by the bitter winds of unsatisfied desire.

[Illustration]

_Dead Thoughts_

My thoughts are an autumn breeze
Lifting and hurrying
Dry rubbish about in a corner.

My thoughts are willow branches
Already broken
Motionless at twilight.

_A Comparison_

My beloved is like blue smoke that rises
In long slow planes,
And wavers
Over the dark paths of old gardens long neglected.

_Mutability_

The wind shakes the mists
Making