I
Was I a Samurai renowned,
Two-sworded, fierce, immense of bow?
A histrion angular and profound?
A priest? a porter?—Child, although
I have forgotten clean, I know
That in the shade of Fujisan,
What time the cherry orchards blow,
I loved you once in old Japan.
II
As here you loiter, flowing-gowned
And hugely sashed, with pins a-row
Your quaint head as with flamelets crowned.
Demure, inviting—even so,
When merry maids in Miyako
To feel the sweet o’ the year began,
And green gardens to overflow,
I loved you once in old Japan.
III
Clear shines the hill; the rice-fields round
Two cranes are circling; sleepy and slow,
A blue canal, the lake’s blue bound,
Breaks at the bamboo bridge; and lo!
Touched with the sundown’s spirit and low,
I see you turn, with flirted fan,
Against the plum-tree’s bloomy snow—
I loved you once in old Japan!
Envoy
Dear, ’twas a dozen lives ago;
But that I was a lucky man
The Toyokuni here will show,
I loved you once in old Japan.
William Ernest Henley.