Spring 2013 Tanka Challenge 04-02

[la_peregrina]

Written by Emperor Murakami (926-67; r. 946-67), translated by Steven D. Carter:

I vowed to myself
to think no more of the past--
and yet here I am
my eyes welling up
with unexpected tears.

My reply:

Unexpected tears
fall, scattered jewels from the
vault of memory.
It is hard to walk away
from a storehouse such as this.