* * *

An evening cloudburst--
sparrows cling desperately
to trembling bushes

*  *  *

By flowering pear
and by the lamp of the moon
she reads her letter

*  *  *

In seasonal rain
along a nameless river
fear too has no name

*  *  *

Only the shoots
of new green leaves, white water,
and yellow barley

*  *  *

Slung over a screen,
a dress of silk and gauze.
The autumn wind.


--Buson
translated by Sam Hamill