Cherry petals,
like the tears
of someone who’s lonely
showering down
when the wind blows cold
– Saigyō, from Poems of a Mountain Home (trans Burton Watson)
Wabibito no namida ni nitaru sakura kana
kaze mi ni shimeba mazu koboretsutsu
For more on Saigyō, visit Hermitary, which focuses on the poet’s time as a hermit. Literary Kicks has a brief bio, and the Japan 2001 Waka site has a Saigyō page as well as many other waka poems.
Small Pond 