Tangled Hair/Parting

by Akiko Yosano

Parting

How marvellous!
You who depart this day
When the cherries are blooming,
Will enter Paris
When the willows are budding.

Let us promise:
Though I write not,
Write to me.
Though you forget,
I shall think of you often.

With its vested power
As if to vanquish
The sorrows of parting,
The big steamer blows its siren.

The boat is gone,
And the harbor changes.
There is not a white cap on the waves
Which is not made of my tears.