On O-Sei-San

Japan has enchanted me.  The beautiful scenery, the flowers, the trees, the inhabitants -- so peaceful, so courteous, and so pleasant.  O-Sei-San, Sayonara, Sayonara! I have spent a happy golden month; I do not know if I can have another one like that in all my life.  Love, money, friendship, appreciation, honors -- these have not been wanting.


To think that I am leaving this life for the uncertain, the unknown. There I was offered an easy way to life, beloved and esteemed...


To you I dedicate the final chapter of these memoirs of my youth. No woman, like you, has ever loved me.  No woman, like you has ever sacrificed for me.  Like the flower of the chodji that falls from the stem fresh and whole without falling leaves or without withering -- with poetry still despite its fall -- thus you fell.  Neither have you lost your purity nor have the delicate petals of your innocence faded -- Sayonara, Sayonara!


You shall never return to know that I have once more thought of you and that your image lives in my memory; and undoubtedly, I am always thinking of you.  Your name lives in the sight of my lips, your image accompanies and animates all my thoughts.  When shall I return to pass another divine afternoon like that in the temple of Meguro? When shall the sweet hours I spent with you return? When shall I find them sweeter, more tranquil, more pleasing?  You the color of the camellia, its freshness, its elegance...


Ah! Last descendant of a noble family, faithful to an unfortunate vengeance, you are lovely like... everything has ended!  Sayonara, Sayonara!