春興（明治三十一年三月）

出門多所思

春風吹吾衣

芳草生車轍

廢道入霞微

停筇而矚目

萬象帶晴暉

聽黃鳥宛轉

睹落英粉霏

行盡平蕪遠

題詩古寺扉

孤愁高雲際

大空斷鴻歸

寸心何窈窕

縹緲忘是非

三十我欲老

韶光猶依依

逍遙隨物化

悠然對芬菲

Spring Rhapsody (March 1898)

As I leave the gate, much on the mind,

A spring breeze brushes my coat.

Fragrant grass grows in the wheel ruts

Of a deserted road receding in the haze.

I rest my cane and take a moment to look

At myriad shapes tricked out in sunlight.

I listen to a warbler tuning its song,

Watch falling petals fluttering in the air.

Where my walk ends, a grassy field stretches far;

I write a poem on an ancient temple door.

Lonely sorrow high atop the clouds,

Across the sky a stray goose flies home.

Why is the human heart a thing so recondite,

Formless, it cannot tell right from wrong?

At thirty years I am growing old,

Still wistful of happier days.

I wander with the changes of things, And calmly encounter their sweet perfume.