After the Sposalizio de Mare

The tedium of

Tuesday; echoes heard in a

Shop in Kyoto.

~ Buson [Englished by Phillip Whidden]

Slow days occur, not just in Titusville

But in Kyoto, cherry petaled time

Well past.  The monks are used to thinking, still

In meditation when no thoughts sublime

Break into Buddha brains.  In Paris, too,

Quite boring scenes obtrude no doubt

Among patisseries (but not plain cabbage stew,

One hopes).  Cathedral tower bells give tongue

To time, perhaps to Christ’s eternity,

But often hang, keeping stum.  The Seine

Can’t always have young love’s supernity.

The river does not flow with Brut champagne.

  In Venice, too, past doges are no more.

    You cannot hear them in a muffled oar.

© Phillip Whidden