The Wandering Wanderer’s Heart

“The sky is vast, a lone cloud drifts by; the setting sun clears, reflecting my homeland… How should I write the final line?” Kaedehara Kazuha pondered for a long time, but in the end, he could not finish the haiku. Three thousand miles from home, a traveler climbs high for nothing. In the islands of thunder and eternity, dreams are sealed within towering statues of the gods. Those who choose to bear their dreams can only become wandering fugitives. But the wind always changes direction. Travelers stranded in foreign lands will one day set foot on their homeland again, just as lush new leaves grow even after a storm of cherry blossoms has passed. And the white herons of their homeland will stand proudly upon the snow, beating their wings to return home through the bitter cold. Oh, dream of home, when will you come true? Oh, the one I long for, when will you return? Kazuha sat beneath the long wind, meditating amid the lonely clouds. A little while later, two tear tracks already glistened on his cheeks. “The last line… I have it. I’ll write, ‘A wanderer’s heart adrift.’”