Winter

Joso
ANOTHER WORLD
The teal duck surfaced: its astonished eyes
Fresh from the world that underwater lies.

Buson
THE LONELY ONE
Ah, on the fallen leaves before my gate,
How far his footsteps sound for whom i wait!

Buson
DEMONIC
How the boisterous howls of winter swell,
Pelting pebbles against the temple-bell.

Buson
A SAMURAI AT THE INN
Out of the flurried snow he entered:
"Board And bed!" he growled; and then flung down his sword.

Tairo
SOLAR KINSHIP
Swooping down to my gauntlet from the sky,
The sun is mirrored in the falcons eye.

Ho-Ho
INTERCHANGE
The sea: a silver flash without a sound;
But a dry surf of leaves along the ground.

Ho-Ho
LATE WINTER
So many white plum-petals fall and die:
Can it be spring already in the sky?

Boncho
THE GOLDEN EGG
Bare camphor branches, black against the west:
The sun is setting in an eagle's nest.

Shoha
"EVERY DAY IS A GOOD DAY"
What happiness to wake, alive again,
Into this same grey world of winter rain!

Meisetsu
THE ONLY TRACE
The travelling monk has vanished in the mists;
But still his little silver bell persists.

Basho
LAST POEM
Though on a journey I have fallen ill,
My dreams on withered moorland wander still

Basho
BY THE OWARI SEA
Over foam-flecked waves in the falling night,
The wild ducks' cries are dying, dim and white.

Basho
ENVOI
The winter sun, rising with blood-red light behind them -
Ah, how rare and sad a sight!

Shiki
WINTER NANDINA
White with hoar-frost lies the garden bed,
On which one berry drops, a lively red.

Shiki
URGENT
E leven horsemen riding through a night
Of swirling snow: none looks to left or right.

Issa
BESIDE THE TEMPLE GATE
The giant guardians stand in darkened stalls;
Their legs are bare, where icy moonlight falls.

Issa
SIGNIFYING NOTHING
Between the washing-bowls at birth and death,
All that I uttered: what a waste of breath!

Kyoko
A PRISONER
Between the bars, the dove has stretched out one
Grey wing, to warm it in the winter sun .

Jokun
THE BROKEN RESOLUTION
Another year departs: the bell is tolled,
-And I intended never growing old!

Rippo
THE THREE LOVELIEST THINGS
I have seen moon and blossoms; now i go To
view the last and loveliest: the snow.