To My Cherry Blossom
From old Japan beyond the sea
A fairy vision beckons me,
A vale where cool the shadows rest
From Fujiyama’s towering crest,
A ruined temple’s crumbling wall
Lulled by a drowsy waterfall,
A shrine in whose corroding bell
Faint murmurs, long forgotten, dwell,
And Buddha, brooding day by day
Dreams the slow centuries away
In old Japan.
There might the careworn find release
In calm Nirvana’s perfect peace.
There might the traveler inhale
The haunting sweetness of that vale,
An incense from the flowery gloom
Where clustering cherry blossoms bloom
In petaled purity that glows
Like Fujiyama’s drifting snows;
The fragrance of a far off clime
From some remote, forgotten time
In old Japan.
There might I roam in fancy free
That Orient vale beyond the sea,
By Nippon’s shores an Eden seek
Neath Fujiyama’s storied peak.
But here, - where happier far, I’d be
A CHERRY BLOSSOM blooms for me.
I glimpse within her starry eyes
A nearer view of Paradise,
My Shrine and Eden is our home,
Nor need my wandering fancy roam
To old Japan.