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Home  »  Poetry: A Magazine of Verse  »  Jun Fujita

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

Tanka

Jun Fujita

I
A FRAIL hepatica

Shyly holds its fragrance

Beneath the fresh morning dew.

So, Elizabeth.

II
The air is still

And grasses are wet;

Thread-like rain

Screens the dunes.

III
The storm has passed,

The sky washed clear.

Rain-drops on twigs

Reflect the moon.

IV
A sloping sand plain

Fades into pale night air;

A black tree skeleton

Casts no shadow.

V
The brook has gone,

Left the lifeless bed behind;

A lonely bird

Seeks the water in vain.

VI
On a country road

An old woman walks;

The autumn sun

Casts her shadow long and thin.

VII
Across the frozen marsh

The last bird has flown;

Save a few reeds

Nothing moves.

VIII
Graves are frozen.

A few leaves

Stood, danced

And have gone.