Written on Water

by Takashi Kojima

  Lest your footprints reveal our tryst.

  (2692)

  305

  if I have to pine away

  Daily in love's agony,

  Fain I'd be a clod of earth,

  Which she walks upon

  In her garden morn and eve.

  (2693)

  306

  As a pheasant flies

  O'er a Lofty mountaintop

  Straight to his mate,

  So straightway should I fall in love

  With a girl whom I've just glimpsed?

  (2710)

  307

  As a mountain stream

  Rushing down a rugged cliff

  Dashes against rocks and breaks,

  So my heart in pieces breaks

  On nights when I can't meet my love.

  (2716)

  308

  Fain I'd be an isle

  Dashed against by raging waves

  Breaking into foam,

  if I could e'er be released

  From the gnawing pains of Love.

  (2733)

  309

  If I could be free

  From the deadly pain of love,

  Fain I'd be a grain of sand,

  Drifting with the tide

  Up and down the briny shore.

  (2734)

  310

  Where the ospreys fly,

  Waves rise and fall.

  Never can I tell

  Where my love for her will wend

  Any more than where the waves will go.

  (2739)

  311

  There must be a lull

  In the billows which arise

  in the mighty deep.

  But the billows of my love for you,

  Ever raging, know no lull.

  (2741)

  312

  Could I be freed

  From my gnawing love for him,

  Fain a diver I would be

  Gathering seaweed and shells

  In the nearby bay.

  (2743)

  313

  I'm a river barge

  Heavily laden with reeds.

  Since l met my love,

  She has boarded me,

  Heavy on my heart.

  (2748)

  314

  When we chance to meet,

  Only cast a smile at me.

  That should be all.

  See that no one ever suspects

  That we are Lovers.

  (2762)

  315

  I am so distraught with Love

  That l feel I shall die.

  But I'll try to keep alive,

  For death leaves no hope

  For me ever to meet my Love.

  (2764)

  316

  Tell my Love

  That I've waited for her,

  Stamping my feet

  Till the rank weeds by the road

  Are as dead as winter grass.

  (2776)

  317

  Little do l care

  With whom I may Lie,

  But as seaweed sways to the tide,

  So my heart has swayed to you.

  Now I wait for your sweet will.

  (2782)

  318

  Flowers, coming into bloom,

  Pass away in time.

  But my ardent love,

  Ever flaming in my heart,

  Knows no time to rest or cease.

  (2785)

  319

  In my nightly dream

  Appears my sweet Love,

  Fresh and beautiful

  As a fragrant rose in pink attire,

  With a smile upon her face.

  (2786)

  320

  When l turn my eyes

  Toward where my love dwells,

  I feel our love

  Will continue always,

  To where the earth meets the sky.

  (2787)

  321

  As a string is cut,

  So I've broken with him.

  If I'm still distraught

  By my love for him,

  There's no choice for me but to die.

  (2789)

  322

  Day is dawning now.

  Cocks crow in the yard.

  Let them crow on loudly.

  What do I care for dawn?

  I sleep alone.

  (2800)

  323

  When I sleep alone,

  Missing my darling love,

  How long is the night?

  Long as a mountain pheasant's tail

  Trailing on the ground.

  (2802)

  324

  I wish to sleep more

  On the pillow of your arm.

  But the plovers cry,

  Telling us that day has dawned,

  When my husband of one night

  Has to rise and go away.

  (2807)

  325

  I will await my Love,

  Patient far into the night,

  Even till the moon

  Now rising, descends Low

  Into the western sky.

  (2820)

  326

  As you reap sedge

  That you do not mean to plait

  Into useful things,

  So you dally with my Love

  With no mind to marry me.

  (2837)

  327

  Would that l could float

  Like a spray of Leaves

  Drifting downstream

  To the shallows of the brook

  Where a maiden fair stands.

  (2838)

  328

  I awaited him,

  Hoping he might come at any time-

  While the night wore away,

  My long anxious vigil

  Gave way to bitter tears and grief.

  (2864)

  329

  If I had a love

  To share my bed,

  The longer the cold night lasts,

  The happier

  I would be.

  (2865)

  330

  Who is it that is

  Talking to a wedded woman?

  Untie my sash for him?

  Is that what he means? Oh, no.

  Who is it that talks like that?

  (2866)

  331

  in the throes of Love,

  I'm ready to fade away,

  But I'll try to stay alive,

  For my death will dash my hope of

  Ever again meeting my love.

  (2868)

  332

  People's talk of us

  Has wounded you—

  You said you hated

  To encounter me

  Even in the street.

  (2871)

  333

  For long I have not seen my love,

  And I am in anguish.

  A rumor going round

  All the louder strikes my ears

  And the sharper stings my heart.

  (2872)

  334

  Once I thought myself

  Nearly equal

  To heaven and earth.

  Captive now to female charms,

  Where is my bravado?

  (2875)

  335

  Even since the night

  When I threw myself in my lover's arms,

  The white heat of love

  Into shreds has torn my heart,

  leaving me no peace of mind.

  (2878)

  336

  Could my late wife

  Return to life for even a day!

  In my dreams I sleep with her,

  But 'tis of little solace,

  For I know she's no more.

  (2880)

  337

  Could I even catch

  A distant glimpse of you,

  The agony of my love

  Would abate-

  Else I'll die of Longing.

  (2883)


  338

  I am all but dead

  With the pain of love.

  I may live today,

  But from tomorrow

  How shall I keep alive?

  (2884)

  339

  Leaving home at morn,

  You return home at eve.

  Yet, all the time

  You are away,

  For you I Long.

  (2893)

  340

  Captivated now

  By enthralling female charms,

  I'm entirely bereft

  Of all sense and wit—

  I shall die a slave to love.

  (2907)

  341

  Were you not so dear to me,

  My heart and soul

  And even my life,

  Why should I long for you,

  Who are now another's wife?

  (2909)

  342

  Say, was it not you

  Who proposed to meet me?

  And yet when we meet,

  Bashfully behind your hands,

  You conceal your lovely face.

  (2916)

  343

  Was it in my dream

  That my darling was here

  Or did she really come?

  So bemused by love,

  I'm puzzled which it was.

  (2917)

  344

  Till the day we meet again

  I will never undo the knot

  She tied in my inner sash,

  While I tied a knot in hers

  As our mutual pledge of love.

  (2919)

  345

  Mortal as I am,

  If l die, I do not care.

  What most concerns me

  Is that if l die,

  Nor more can I see my love.

  (2920)

  The following is a woman's reply poem.

  346

  Maiden as I am,

  Devoted and strong

  Is my love for you.

  What most concerns me

  Is to see you always.

  (2921)

  347

  Eventide brings

  The Lover of my heart to me.

  Doubtless, this is why

  When evening comes,

  My heart throbs and pounds with joy.

  (2922)

  The following two poems were composed by a woman as gibes at a much younger man who wooed her, proposing marriage.

  348

  Nurses are for babes.

  Do you seek a nurse for a babe?

  O 1 am surprised.

  Are you still suckling at the breasts

  Do you woo me as a nurse?

  (2925)

  349

  Deeply I regret

  That I have grown too old to be

  Your beloved nurse.

  Else I'd gladly

  Attend to your wants and needs.

  (2926)

  350

  The agony grows

  As l sit and wait for him.

  When dark night arrives,

  If he's Late coming here,

  Forthwith will I go to him.

  (2931)

  351

  Living not far off,

  Time and again we meet.

  How trying it is!

  You're a Lady of high birth;

  We never have a friendly talk.

  (2934)

  352

  Now I fear I'll die.

  So consumed

  With ardent love for you,

  My heart is never at rest

  For a single night or day.

  (2936)

  353

  Mischievous wild talk,

  Idle and unfounded and spread about,

  Irritates us.

  So I see him with my eyes,

  But never do I meet him.

  (2938)

  354

  I'm so Lost in love

  That I cannot tell

  When 'tis morn and when 'tis eve.

  Better to die

  That my mind may be at ease.

  (2940)

  355

  Now I'm weak with age,

  I never see this old white robe

  But it brings memories of sweet days past.

  Clad in this Long-sleeved robe,

  I pledged the troth of love

  With my dear sweet one.

  (2952)

  356

  "You are my dear love,"

  Say you. These are hackneyed words.

  And yet for all that,

  Your repeated assurances

  Make me think it is true.

  (2961)

  357

  I never see these seams

  But that I am moved to tears.

  Handing me this robe, she said,

  "Look at this and think of me,

  If for years you cannot return.

  (2967)

  358

  Could I clearly see your face

  As I do mine in the mirror,

  It might calm

  My blazing love for you,

  Which consumes my body and soul.

  (2979)

  359

  It is many months now

  Since I have seen

  My darling love, of whom

  Never do 1 tire or become sated.

  Now I feel as good as dead.

  (2980)

  360

  Since our souls commune,

  I may meet and sleep with her.

  But her mother

  Keeps careful guard,

  As with deer and boar

  That ravage the farms.

  (3000)

  361

  "I await the moon

  Rising above the hills,"

  Said I to a man nearby.

  But in fact it was my Love

  That I had long awaited.

  (3002)

  362

  How I Long and pine

  For a lovely lady

  Whom I vaguely glimpsed

  In the darkness of early dawn

  When a crescent moon had just set.

  (3003)

  363

  Not until the orb of night,

  Shining over sky and earth,

  Loses its bright Light

  Will my blazing love

  Lose its heat and die away.

  (3004)

  364

  As the glassy stream

  Of the Saho flows softly,

  So I wish to stay in your arms

  in this calm, happy peace

  Till we bathe in morrow's light.

  (3010)

  365

  Hot was my breast

  With flaming Love

  For my darling girl-

  As l opened the door at dawn,