Calico-Cat                                                    

As if you were the soul of a forgotten consort
exiled deep in a harem of some desert kingdom,
your body and mind mottled so, how it worries me!

Even after having crossed the seven seas
of seven different shades, how sadly your eyes
still keep the color of the twilight from your homeland!

When people hold you in their arms,
you arch your back like a mountain range
and settle into an endless laziness.

That small yowl—
which ancestor’s inheritance does
that make your agate’s song ever more tenuous?

In the walled garden,
a white butterfly flies in low,
the midday sun watches over the single blossom of a tulip.