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Seated
on a lightshade
I meet the rain at dawn
What care I for wealth or fame?
On
this night of the full moon
Even though the sky be overcast
Would that the hearts of men might ever remain unclouded
(1868)
I
present my friend with both steel and blossoms
Those two elements are coexistent on this earth
Why must strife ever prevail?
(Poem for Yamagata Aritomo upon presentation of sword after
his victorious return from the Boshin Wars.)
In rain or shine I love to watch
The grasses and leaves as they grow luxuriantly amidst the mountain’s
haze
Where from time to time the nightingale takes flight.
June 10, 1868
Not
a single blade of grass
Has failed to grow
For even a day
In
this world
At the sights of cherry blossoms or of the moon
My tears fall -- indeed!
February 2, 1869
(On seeing the unkempt grounds of the abandoned Aizu mansion)
As
I prepare to make clear to all the meaning of enduring loyalty,
I wish to conquer the five continents,
How grievous that my comrades have died!
All my pleasures are accompanied by sorrow.
By Heaven's grace my own life has been spared,
So I vow to myself that I shall repay my country.
February 9, 1869
This
world of ours
Is a sumo match
Under the cherry blossoms.
April 6, 1869
The
wick of a single, lonely lamp casts a flicker of light across
me
As I sit in silence, meditating, overfilled with my emotions.
When I look about me, old friends are nowhere to be seen.
A man does not, after all, attempt to promote his fame.
Through turmoil these many years, the bones of countless comrades
lie bleaching.
How often has the scenario in the Palace changed.
The years pass onlike the flow of a river never to return,
Yet men struggle for glory as surely as plants compete each
spring for space.
Uneasy is the future of our country in times like these.
And what of the fate of the masses, our thrity million people?
Thus in this grass hut through the night, I lie awake,
Hearing the sound of wind and rain sweep down from the summit
of the mountain
October 16, 1869
The
people of this worldplay their own game of sumo.
The real victors in this struggle are not necessarily those
who win the match.
November 18, 1869
The
snow reflects the morning sun on the high eaves.
The first wind out of the East this year blows in.
The vast magnificent scene which fills our eyes through the
open door --
The seas, the mountains, the swift-flowing streams -- all
we owe to the Imperial benevolence.
February 19, 1871
The
cherry blossoms bloom again,
Now that a year has passed.
But where are the shades of our comrades of yesteryear,
Would that I might see them again.
May 4, 1871
As
I gazed up at the cherry trees at the
gate of Noda mansion,
I saw the dew on the young leaves --
Evanescent as our Lord's spirit,
For whom our tears fall.
-- Yuisetsu*
May 23, 1871
*Yuisetsu
is a pen name meaning literally "as ephemeral as the snow"
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