Haikai
I.
White petals afloat
On a winding woodland stream—
What else is life’s dream!
II.
Butterflies a-wing—
Are you flowers returning
To your branch in Spring?
III.
At new moon we met!
Two weeks I’ve waited in vain.
To-night!—Don’t forget.
IV.
Oh, red maple leaves,
There seem more of you these eves
Than ever grew on trees.
Credit
From Tanka and Haikai: Japanese Rhythms (1916) by Sadakichi Hartmann. These poems are in the public domain.
Author
Sadakichi Hartmann
Carl Sadakichi Hartmann, born in the late 1860s in Japan, was a dramatist, fiction writer, and art critic. His poetry collections include Naked Ghosts: Four Poems (Fantasia, 1925), Tanka and Haiku: 14 Japanese Rhythms (G. Bruno, 1915), and My Rubaiyat (Mangan, 1913). He died in November 1944.
Date Published
01/01/1916