Nothing to do with Japan, but here's "The heart's desire of a Symbolist, done out of the incomprehensible (and presumably improper) French into plain and decent English," one of the "hitherto uncollected" poems in The Verse of Christopher Brennan (ed. A. R. Chisolm and J. J. Quinn):

O let me wither like the leaf
That reddens on the bough;
for dream alas! is all too brief
and Life is but a cow

O leave me like the leaves that lie
and moulder where they fell;
my soul shall be, when I shall die
a damp and mouldy smell

O tuck me in my little bed
(I mean my little grave)
for all I want is to be dead
and buried in a cave

The editors offer this information about the text:

In J.J.Q. papers, in Quinn's writing. Brennan had put a note (for D.O.R.?) at the end:

  "it was the rhyme that made me put
  this line about a cave
  no matter! when the cave is shut
  I can no longer rave."

J.J.Q. is obviously editor J. J. Quinn; D.O.R. is Dowell O'Reilly.

More on Brennan and Symbolism.