The Wild Swans in Tokyo
Disclaimer: daydreamerfitz does not own TMM or the poetry she has used.
This poem is by William Butler Yeats, an Irish poet, who, too, fell in love without having it returned. He returns to a lake in his friends park to see young swans who appear to have youth and love. Both things he has lost. And the poem is called The Wild Swans Of Coole.
The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
In the fading light of this autumn day a man walks within the shadows of the changing trees towards the lake within the park. He moves slowly, allowing old memories to guide him there.
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine-and-fifty swans.
Upon the waters in the quiet clearing are many swans. More than he can count each gliding across the now rippling reflection. He's sure he saw these creatures here before along time ago, maybe when he was just out thinking to himself. How long? Nineteen years, was it?
The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All silently mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.
Suddenly these elegant birds begin ascend into the sky, their wings clashing in… fright? The man shifted his gaze and thoughts from the swans to a small figure across the water. A little girl was splashing her hand in the water, but stopped having seen she had startled the birds. The resemblance… It couldn't be…! The was about five years old. She was tan and had red hair just like… The man, still in shadows, turned his attention back to the swans.
I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
And now my heart is sore.
All's changed since, I, hearing at twilight,
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.
He thinks back to when he was young, he passed by here before, though he had really been causing trouble. There was a girl here, too. Not this one. She was older, closer to his age. The one he loved. He stole a glance at the child across the water to see that another man had joined her. The resemblance… her father maybe. Tanned like his daughter, but had black hair. Another figure approached them. A woman. The mother. The onlooker of this happy family, at the woman. His breath gone upon seeing her red hair, those chocolate eyes.
Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.
The family gazed in awe at the young swans. As did the man. The swans are paired in love as are the parents. Their love still remains young like the swans. Huddled up against the cold. The child sees the shadow before seeing he is a man, and points. The couple look up.
But now they drift on the still water
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake's edge or pool
Delight men's when I awake some day
To find they have all flown away?
Their vision clouded by the flock of swans leaving the lake. A shadow barely noticeable stand behind it. The swans have left and across the water are only trees. The wind carries the sounds left off the swans before another sound is laid upon the woman's ears.
"At least you're happy koneko-chan".
Ichigo looks around. She was sure she heard… She was sure Kish had come back.
He did. But as the swans left, so did he.