Surely, he thought, I have painted Nothing so fair as this Moonlit almond blossom Sweet to fold and kiss.... "Kimi," he said, "I am wedded! Hush, for it could not be!" "Kiss me one kiss," she whispered, "Me also, even me." Small and terribly drifting Backward, her sad white face Lifted up to Sawara Once, in that lonely place, White as a drifting blossom Under his wondering eyes, Slowly he gathered and held her Under the drifting skies. "Others are happy," she whispered, "Maidens and men I have seen: Be happy, be happy, Sawara! The other--shall be--your queen! Kiss me one kiss for parting." Trembling she lifted her head, Then like a broken blossom It fell on his arm. She was dead. VIII Much impressed, Sawara straight (Though the hour was growing late) Made a sketch of Kimi lying By the lonely, sighing sea, Brought it back to Tenko. Tenko looked it over crying (Under the silvery willow-tree). "You have burst the golden gate! You have conquered Time and Fate! Hokusai is not so great! This is Art," said Tenko! THE ENCHANTED ISLAND I I remember-- a breath, a breath Blown thro' the rosy gates of birth, A morning freshness not of the earth But cool and strange and lovely as death In Paradise, in Paradise, When, all to suffer the old sweet pain Closing his immortal eyes Wonder-wild an angel lies With wings of rainbow-tinctured grain Withering till--ah, wonder-wild, Here on the dawning earth again He wakes, a little child. II I remember-- a gleam, a gleam Of sparkling waves and warm blue sky Far away and long ago, Or ever I knew that youth could die; And out of the dawn, the dawn, the dawn, Into the unknown life we sailed As out of sleep into a dream, And, as with elfin cables drawn In dusk of purple over the glowing Wrinkled measureless emerald sea, The light cloud shadows larger far Than the sweet shapes which drew them on, Elfin exquisite shadows flowing Between us and the morning star Chased us all a summer's day, And our sail like a dew-lit blossom shone Till, over a rainbow haze of spray That arched a reef of surf like snow --Far away and long ago-- We saw the sky-line rosily engrailed With tufted peaks above a smooth lagoon Which growing, growing, growing as we sailed Curved all around them like a crescent moon; And then we saw the purple-shadowed creeks, The feathery palms, the gleaming golden streaks Of sand, and nearer yet, like jewels of fire Streaming between the boughs, or floating higher Like tiny sunset-clouds in noon-day skies, The birds of Paradise. III