"At the left of the high hill of the cherry-blossoms there was a mountain covered with green ivy—dark green ivy that defined its own green shape against the brilliant yellow sky behind it. Green and yellow, green and yellow, green and yellow, said the sky and the mountain covered with ivy.
"The high hill of the cherry-blossoms was colored with all the colors of Japan.
"I lived there with people—my mother and my father and some others—all with pale faces and sloe-eyes.
"But some of them were very ugly.
"Then came one down out of the north country that was dark and strong and brave and full of life's fire.
"He was ugly, but his face was perfect.
"Straightway I fell in love with this one. Of all things in Japan, what a thing it is to fall in love!
"Where the red barren waste lay spread
