The crisp day we parted

At that crisp moment of parting,

Wind crackled over the plateau;

Waves of pampas grass rippled white,

Flickering the evergreen memories of those days

Since that summer we shared—

One instant in our flash of life,

Under the cryptomerias

On the shores of the Inland Sea—

Like meeting a friendly face

In the window of a passing train.

Once our hearts opened to each other—

Innermost heart to innermost heart—

Such transparent purity,

Lucid as the glitter of the autumn sky,

Is my life’s greatest joy.

Even if our eyes should never again meet

As on that crisp day we parted,

I shall believe through the eternity of each moment

In the reality of heart calling to heart,

A reality

   etched forever in my memory.

On that crisp evening when we parted,

Moonlight bound our hearts together

And cast a shadow as a parting gift

Over the winecup we shared as friends.

Autumn winds now sweep across that plateau.

---

Presented to Daizo Kusayanagi (1924–2002), political and social affairs critic, writer and journalist, in September 1967. Mr. Kusayanagi had interviewed the author on several occasions in the late 1960s. This translation, by Robert Epp, first appeared in Hopes and Dreams (1976).