Dry Sedge

Junzaburo Nishiwaki

Autumn when I would visit
   Ciliegia Pozzo my friend
   on the upper reaches of
   the Arno-Camo to pick
   the yellow chrysanthemums,
   wild orchids and dry sedge
   and adorn our table of talk
   to celebrate vacant memories.

         PARABOLA

By the lute of a lake
I sit down silent on
the bowl of a fallen elm
and think of
the water trickling meandering
in reed mace, duckweed, arrowhead,
and meditate on the fatal
pear-shaped shadow of my head;
an untimely clanging of a temple bell:
my hollow heart will swell