style="font-size:15px;"> Only because the water's clearness stirred.
—RAIZAN
VIEW OF KÔRIYAMA
Roof upon roof the white-walled castle towers
Above a plain of rape with golden flowers.
—KYOROKU
RETURN OF THE DISPOSSESSED
The same old village: here where I was born,
Every flower I touch—a hidden thorn.
—ISSA
THE ORPHANS
Oh, ragged sparrow without any mother,
When we are lonely, let's play with each other!
—ISSA (aged 6)
SUNSHOWER
Warm sunshine through a clearing after showers;
And for a while, the scent of hawthorn flowers.
—KYOSHI
STILL UNION
Single butterflies dancing through the air
Until they meet: how motionless a pair!
—BASHÔ
BONDAGE
The caged bird gazes at the butterflies
Beyond the bars with longing—watch its eyes!
—ISSA
LIBERATION
The skylark's song above the meadow-flowers
Would last for longer than the day has hours.
—BASHÔ
IN THE MEADOW
Oh who, untouched by tenderness, can pass
Small white daisies scattered in the grass?
—HÔ-Ô
FAIR WARNING
Young sparrows, ruffled in a dust-bath, fly
Out of the way! My horse is plodding by.
—ISSA
UNDERCURRENT
A cumbersome waggon rumbled down the hill
Under its load: my peonies tremble still.
—BUSON
SOWN WITH GOLD
How far these fields of rape in blossom run:
East to the moonrise, west to the setting sun!
—BUSON
TRANSMIGRATION
Lighting one candle with another's flame
At dusk in spring—the same, yet not the same.
—BUSON
EPITOME OF SPRING
Glimpsed through a crevice in the garden fence,
One white flower is spring s impermanence.
—BUSON
AND SO
And so the spring buds burst, and so I gaze,
And so the blossoms fall, and so my days. . . .
—ONITSURA
BURNT OUT
Onto the ashes where my cottage burned,
The cherry-blossoms scatter, unconcerned.
—HOKUSHI
ONE SPRING DAY
How fragile, how ephemeral in flight
This life—for instance: butterfly, alight!
—SÔIN
DOWN THE AVENUE
The curtain of the daimyo's palanquin
Was lifted. Cherry-petals drifted in.
—MÔGAN
THE DELICATE TOUCH
Violets in retirement near its trail
Are touched in passing by the pheasant's tail.
—SHÛSHIKI
RAPE OF SPRING
The cherry-petals' loosely fluttering swarm
Is put to flight; in dark pursuit—the storm!
—SADAIE
THE MIDDLE WAY
A white swan swimming to the shore beyond
Parts with his breast the cherry-pet ailed pond.
—RÔKA
ILLUSION
The fallen blossoms which I saw arise,
Returning toward the bough, were butterflies.
—MORITAKE
A RAIN-SPOILT SPRING
The end of spring has turned the scattered bloom
To torn waste paper for the bamboo broom.
—BUSON
SUMMER
WAKING AT AN INN
Through white mosquito-nets, as yet undrawn,
How cool the bay looks in the summer dawn!
—SÔSEKI
THE PAVILION ON THE LAKE
Here in the morning cool,
