Sunrise in the Hills of Satsuma

The Day unfolds like a lotus bloom,   Pink at the tip and gold at the core, Rising up swiftly through waters of gloom         That lave night’s shore. Down bamboo-stalks the sunbeams slide,   Darting like glittering elves at play, To the thin arched grass where crickets hide         And sing all day. The old crows caw from the camphor boughs,   They have builded there for a thousand years; Their nestlings stir in a huddled drowse         To pipe shrill fears. A white fox creeps to his come in the hill,   A small gray ape peers up at the sun; Crickets and sunbeams are quarrelling still;         Day has begun.