A reminiscence

Seeing the face of Miss Rim Ch'un-aeng,
triple gold-medallist at the Asian Games,
shining from the TV screen,
her expression seems so very familiar.

After long rummaging through my memories
I recall Modigliani's 'Portrait of a Woman'
pinned on the wall of my boarding-house room
when I was studying in Tokyo in my early 20s.

At the time I admired and loved
that haggard-looking face so much
I even bragged to my friends
I would marry a woman like that.

In the end, I couldn't meet any such girl
and I got married to my rather more cozy wife,
and now, after forty-two years have gone by,
at last just such a girl has appeared.....

Well, they say that Goethe when he was 70
fell passionately in love with a girl of 18?
And Henry Miller, who survived until last year,
is supposed to have sent telegrams of courtship
at the age of 70, too?

But me?
Well, that's another matter!

Judging by the mirror
today of all days
my grey hair and my grey beard
look whiter than ever.