Japanese Hokku 12
Sitting by the pool, I looked in and saw my face. O that I were blind!
Lewis Alexander
Sitting by the pool, I looked in and saw my face. O that I were blind!
A speaker sits quietly by a pool and looks down, only to meet his own reflection. That ordinary moment becomes painful: the sight of his face is so upsetting that he wishes he could not see at all. “O that I were blind!” is not mere exaggeration.
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