Three Poets at Minase
321
| |
A pine-cricket Shōhaku |
Autumn (pine-cricket). It chirps in vain because she does not hear it. The house is deserted. |
On the mountain I staked out Sōgi |
Autumn (moon). Links to loneliness of preceding verse. Pun: “shines clear” for “lodges.” |
I awake from sleep Sōchō |
His plans for the future are interrupted. |
I have piled upon my brow Shōhaku |
With age his hair turns white, as he remembers as he lies awake at night. |
Translated by Donald Keene