Invitation

The chief flower
Of the plum-tree of this isle
Opens to-night....
Come, singing to the moon,
In the third watch.

From the Japanese of a Courtesan of Nagasaki.

Edward Powys Mathers

Edward Powys Mathers was an English translator and poet, best known for translating the French Orientalist J.C. Mardrus's translation of 'The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night' in 1923. In addition to translations, Powys Mathers was an influential figure in the realm of cryptic crosswords, devising some of the most challenging puzzles for 'The Observer'. His translations have been lauded for their literary beauty and for introducing English-speaking audiences to classic Persian, Arabic, and Turkish poetry.

Edward Powys Mathers

Ghazal Of Mira

Edward Powys Mathers, Simple Poetry

Alone One Night

Edward Powys Mathers, Simple Poetry

The Princess Of Qulzum

Edward Powys Mathers, Simple Poetry

To His Love Instead Of A Promised Picture-Book

Edward Powys Mathers, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

Old Scent Of The Plum-Tree

Remembering what passed
Under the scent of the plum-tree,
I asked the plum-tree for tidings
Of that other.
Alas ... the cold moon of spring....

From the Japanese of Fujiwara Ietaka. (1158-1237).

Edward Powys Mathers

Invitation

Unless you come while still the world is green,
    A place of birds and the blue dreaming sea,
In vain has all the singing summer been,
    Unless you come, and share it all with me.

Ah! come, ere August flames its heart away,
    Ere, like a golden widow, autumn goes
Across the woodlands, sad with thoughts of May,
    An aster in her bosom for a rose.

Richard Le Gallienne

A Boat Comes In

Although I shall not see his face
For the low riding of the ship,
The three armorial oak-leaves on his cloak
Will be enough.
But what if I make a mistake
And call to the wrong man?
Or make no sign at all,
And it is he?

Japanese Street Song.

Edward Powys Mathers

A Poet Looks At The Moon

I hear a woman singing in my garden,
But I look at the moon in spite of her.

I have no thought of trying to find the singer
Singing in my garden;
I am looking at the moon.

And I think the moon is honouring me
With a long silver look.

I blink
As bats fly black across the ray;
But when I raise my head the silver look
Is still upon me.

The moon delights to make eyes of poets her mirror,
And poets are many as dragon scales
On the moonlit sea.

From the Chinese of Chang Jo Hsu.

Edward Powys Mathers

Malay Song

The Stars await, serene and white,
    The unarisen moon;
Oh, come and stay with me to-night,
    Beside the salt Lagoon!

My hut is small, but as you lie,
    You see the lighted shore,
And hear the rippling water sigh
    Beneath the pile-raised floor.

No gift have I of jewels or flowers,
    My room is poor and bare:
But all the silver sea is ours,
    And all the scented air

Blown from the mainland, where there grows
    Th' "Intriguer of the Night,"
The flower that you have named Tube rose,
    Sweet scented, slim, and white.

The flower that, when the air is still
    And no land breezes blow,
From its pale petals can distil
    A phosphorescent glow.

I see your ship at anchor ride;
    Her "captive li...

Adela Florence Cory Nicolson

On The Threshold

Introduction To A Collection Of Poems By different Authors

An usher standing at the door
I show my white rosette;
A smile of welcome, nothing more,
Will pay my trifling debt;
Why should I bid you idly wait
Like lovers at the swinging gate?

Can I forget the wedding guest?
The veteran of the sea?
In vain the listener smites his breast, -
"There was a ship," cries he!
Poor fasting victim, stunned and pale,
He needs must listen to the tale.

He sees the gilded throng within,
The sparkling goblets gleam,
The music and the merry din
Through every window stream,
But there he shivers in the cold
Till all the crazy dream is told.

Not mine the graybeard's glittering eye
That held his captive still
To hold my silent prisone...

Oliver Wendell Holmes