Immortal Fuji's snowy crown—
Wide seas with sky of amethyst—
A street where torrents thunder down—
Branches that toss against the mist—
Smooth hills and hill-girt plains where run
Streams through the rice-fields steeped in heat—
Pines gnarled above a sunken sun—
Cold heights where cloud and mountain meet.
Now visions enter to my breast
That from thy passion won their birth,
When like a bride in radiance dressed
Before thee glowed the summers of earth.
What magic gave thee to behold
This fairness, secret from our sight,
Where morning walks the world in gold,
Or seas turn grey with coming night?
For thee, as when the South Winds blow.
Lands burst to bloom. On every shore
Where beauty dwells thou didst bestow
A perilous mortal beauty more.
Twilight and morn on Biwa's breast—
Harima's sands and lordly pines—
White Hira-mountain's winter crest—
The low red dusk round Yedo shrines—
The moon beneath the Monkey Bridge—
The Poisoned River's brooding gloom—
Rose-dawn on some Tokaido ridge—
Pale water-worlds of lotus bloom.
Our toiling race is with the day
Wearied, and restless with the night,—
Unpausing, on its tombward way,
For fear or wonder or delight,—
Unwatchful, mid the sombre things
That mesh us in a vain employ,
For peace that half of heaven brings,
For beauty that is wholly joy.
Lover for whom the world was wide!
Down lighted pathways thou didst move,
Where hills and seas and cities hide
So much for weary men to love.—
The mist of cherry-trees in spring—
Ships sleeping on some bright lagoon—
A swallow's dusky sweeping wing—
Steep Ishiyama's autumn moon—
The changing marvels of faint rain—
The foam that hides the torrent's stream—
The eagle o'er the snowy plain—
Sea-twilights haunted as a dream.
Speaking, thou laidst thy brush aside—
"On a long journey I repair—
Regions beyond the Western Tide—
To view the wonderful landscapes there."