Recollections of Japan.(Poem)

 
   1. 
   The garden in the hills 
   shadowy still at dawn 
   shows no trace of footprints. 
   And yet, spring has arrived: 
   the snow is melting patchily. 
 
   2. 
   Wild blossoms on the river banks 
   sway yellow in the rising wind: 
   see--their images bloom too, 
   deep in the watery clarities. 
 
   3. 
   Warm light floods the countryside. 
   Summer is all about 
   and the green takes on a different tone 
   a shade or two beyond 
   the green that was here before. 
 
   4. 
   A hasty rendez-vous 
   on the lonely mountain meadow-- 
   our pillows are of grass: 
   nor shall we ever speak one word 
   of this our dew-drenched meeting. 
 
   5. 
   How long will it endure? 
   My dear, I cannot tell. 
   I do not know your heart-- 
   only the intricate tangles of 
   this dark rich-flowing hair. 
 
   6. 
   No ...