Читать книгу Net of Fireflies - Harold Stewart - Страница 14

THE GATELESS GATE

Through morning mists and murmurs from the sea

Emerges—one vermilion torii.

—KIKAKU

UNREGARDED DIADEM

Dew on the brambles delicately worn

At sunrise: one clear drop on every thorn.

—BUSON

AT THE WELL

Around the bucket, morning-glories cling:

I beg for water at another spring.

—CHIYO

WITH EVERY BREEZE

The lespedeza blossoms dip and sway,

Yet never spill the dew drops from their spray.⁸

—BASHÔ

STRANGERS

How soon the morning-glory's hour must end!

Alas! It, too, can never be my friend. . . .

—BASHÔ

ALIVE

So much vitality in so few inches:

A perch of hopping, chirping, spotted finches!

—HÔ-Ô

NO RESPITE

Feast of the Dead: hut even on this day,

Smoke from the burning-ground is blown away.

—BASHÔ

CLINGING

This world is but a single dewdrop, set

Trembling upon a stem; and yet . . . and yet . . .⁹

—ISSA

THE MEANING OF LIFE

A yearly sweep for our parental tomb:

The youngest child comes carrying the broom.

—ISSA

THE MEANING OF DEATH

Going to tend our family graves today,

The old dog trots ahead to show the way.

—ISSA

THE DIAMOND SPHERE

Let all my life of dust be cleansed in you,

O one clear evanescent drop of dew!

—BASHÔ

A DYING HOUSE

The household standing by the ancestral graves

Are all white-haired, and lean upon their staves.

—BASHÔ

ON THE NIGHT OF THE DEPARTED

Returning through the cedar-pillared park

Are festive lanterns—fireflies in the dark.¹⁰

—HÔ-Ô

GONE OUT

The paper lanterns on the graves are torn

By heavy dew in the chill autumn dawn.

—RANKÔ

"INTO THE SHINING SEA"

The sunlit dews dry up and disappear;

This world defiles: they would not linger here.

—ISSA

WITHOUT WORDS

What message would the wild bush-clover utter,

Gently brushing, brushing against my shutter?

—SESSHI

THE LIGHT OF TRANQUILITY

The frenzied dash and dart of dragonflies

Is stilled: a crescent moon begins to rise.

—KIKAKU

THE FULL MOON

The new moon showed its silver rim of light;

I watched and waited since, and lo: tonight!¹¹

—BASHÔ

THE GIFT OF EMPTINESS

Retiring into the shadows, I bestow