Imitated from the Japanese
by
W. B. Yeats A most astonishing thing— Seventy years have I lived; (Hurrah for the flowers of Spring For Spring is here again.) Seventy years have I lived No ragged beggar-man, Seventy years have I lived, Seventy years man and boy, And never have I danced for joy. From Last Poems and Two Plays, Dublin, Ireland: Cuala Press, 1939. This 1938 poem is based on Yone Noguchi’s translations of hokku by Issa, as follows (see http://www.botchanmedia.com/YN/articles/hobby.htm). Noguchi dedicated his 1920 book, Japanese Hokkus, to Yeats. How strange it is That I should have lived fifty years! Hallelujah to flower's spring! First day of spring at last! Fifty years I've lived, . . . Not a beggar in rush-clothes! Alas, fifty years have passed, Having no night When I danced in joy. |