April Infatuation
Saigyô says about the cherry blossoms of Mr. Yoshino,
“Could I but divide up myself, and see every spray on unnumbered hills of flowers in bloom!”
Let Ariel inhabit me when spring
Returns so I can fly from tree to tree.
I’ll zoom about from flower to flower and zing
From cherry limb to cherry limb. My spree
Will take me like a sipping bird from sweet
To sweet. I’ll visit every blossom on
A thousand hills and banks. I’ll be as fleet
As honeybees invading white chiffon,
Chiffon, chiffon of petals in the air
Of April. I will force them open, rape
And ravish velvet pollen pistils, share
Throbbed pollen wide as love and soft as crepe.
..A million sips of nectar I will lick—
….And buds will give it, trembling, sweet and slick.