Bamboo and Plum Blossom

Bamboo and Plum Blossom

Bamboo and Plum Blossom

Bamboo and Plum Blossom
Bamboo and Plum Blossom

Friday, May 31, 2013

Ono no Komachi (c.825-c.900)



Atop this crag



Atop this crag
I am to spend a traveller's night;
So cold!
Your robes of moss,
Won't you lend me?


Ono no Komachi

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Du Fu (712-770)



REMEMBERING MY BROTHERS ON A MOONLIGHT NIGHT




A wanderer hears drums portending battle.
By the first call of autumn from a wildgoose at the border,
He knows that the dews tonight will be frost.
...How much brighter the moonlight is at home!
O my brothers, lost and scattered,
What is life to me without you?
Yet if missives in time of peace go wrong --
What can I hope for during war?

Yang Wan-li (?)



Early Summer, Dwelling in the Idleness, I Wake from a Noon Nap


Sour plums at lunch left my teeth feeling all feathery.
Banana trees cast green across gauze window-screens.
A long day. I Wake from a noon nap empty of thought,
all idleness, watch kids catch falling willow blossoms.

Yang Wanli

Monday, May 27, 2013

Lao Tzu (6th cent. BC)



The Way has no name.

The uncarved block is small

But no one dare claim it.

When it is carved there are names.

When there are names it is time to stop.



The Tao Te Ching XXXII

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Gao Qi (1336-1374)



Looking for Hermit Hu
Gao Qi

I pass over water, and pass over water again,
I look at the flowers, and look at the flowers again.
Travelling the river, there's a spring breeze,
Before I am aware, I reach your home.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Meng Chiao (751-814)



Wanderer’s Song

The thread in the hand of a kind mother
Is the coat on the wanderer’s back.
Before he left she stitched it close
In secret fear that he would be slow to return.
Who will say that the inch of grass in his heart
Is gratitude enough for all the sunshine of spring?

Friday, May 24, 2013

Saigyo Hoshi (1118-1190)



How wonderful


How wonderful, that
Her heart
Should show me kindness;
And of all the numberless folk,
Grief should not touch me.

Saigyo

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Yang Wanli (1127-1206)



Early Summer, Dwelling in the Idleness, I Wake from a Noon Nap



Sour plums at lunch left my teeth feeling all feathery.
Banana trees cast green across gauze window-screens.
A long day. I Wake from a noon nap empty of thought,
all idleness, watch kids catch falling willow blossoms.


Yang Wanli

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Wei Ying-wu



Alone at Night at My Monastic Residence: To Secretary Ts’u

The recluse is in bed but not asleep
leaves are falling in flurries
a cold rain makes the late night darker
fireflies are gone from the tower
the blue flames of dawn are no help
I still suffer from a thin summer robe
I didn’t realize the year was so late
or living apart was so lonely

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Chuang Tzu (4th cent BC)






"The Tao exists in the crickets ... in the grasses ... in tiles and bricks ... and in shit and piss."
- Chuang-tzu,

Monday, May 20, 2013

Du Fu (712-770)



ON A MOONLIGHT NIGHT



Far off in Fuzhou she is watching the moonlight,
Watching it alone from the window of her chamber-
For our boy and girl, poor little babes,
Are too young to know where the Capital is.
Her cloudy hair is sweet with mist,
Her jade-white shoulder is cold in the moon.
...When shall we lie again, with no more tears,
Watching this bright light on our screen?

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Li Shangyin (813-858)



A CICADA

Pure of heart and therefore hungry,
All night long you have sung in vain --
Oh, this final broken indrawn breath
Among the green indifferent trees!
Yes, I have gone like a piece of driftwood,
I have let my garden fill with weeds....
I bless you for your true advice
To live as pure a life as yours.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

from- The Vegetable Root Discourses



Stretching the bow when the goose is not yet here;
Drawing the arrow when the rabbit is already dead.
Such is called inopportune timing.
Don't make wave when the wind has subsided;
Disembark as soon as the boat is ashore.
This is the proper way to act.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Chuang tzu (born 369 BC)




Creation and Destruction


When you break something up, you create things.
When you create something, you destroy things.
Material things have no creation or destruction.
Ultimately these concepts connect as one.

Only the enlightened know that they connect as one,
So instead of debating this with your preconceptions,
Approach it in an ordinary way.

Those with this ordinary approach, simply apply the idea.
Those who apply it, connect with it.
Those who connect with it, attain it.
This easily attained understanding is not far off.



Chuang Tzu, – From: The True Tao

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Ho Xuan Huong (1772-1822)



Day and Night


Peekaboo we used to play;
my hands covered my face,
your hands covered your face,
incredible, there we were gone.

That is what we play now, your
hands on my face and my hands
on your eyes. Incredible
how we disappear into each other.

Ho Xuan Huong

Friday, May 10, 2013

Po Chu-i (772-846)



Written While on Night Duty at the Palace, to Send to Yuan Ninth


Ten thousand threads of thought, two sheets written:
before sealing them, I read them over, wonder if they’ll do.
The palace water clock has just sounded the fifth watch,
the lamp in the window, my one light, about to go out.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Ono no Komachi (825-900)



As I dozed



As I dozed
The man I love
Appeared, so
It is dreams that
Have begun to comfort me


Ono no Komachi

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Liu Zongyuan (773-819)



River Snow
Liu Zongyuan

A thousand hills, but no birds in flight,
Ten thousand paths, with no person's tracks.
A lonely boat, a straw-hatted old man,
Fishing alone in the cold river snow.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Wang Wei (699-759)



Peach Blossom Spring






A fisherman floated on, enjoying Spring.
The shores, he found, were covered in Peach Blossom.
Watched reddening trees, uncertain where he was.
Seeing no one reached green water springs.
There a way led through the hill.
Twisting, turning to a vast plain.
Distant trees rose to the clouds.
Houses stretched among bamboo and flowers.
Woodmen had names from times of Chou,
Clothes they wore were those of Ch’in,
Once had lived near Wu-ling River,
Now they lived outside the world.
Bright moon in pines. By their doors peace.
Sunrise. From clouds the wild birds call.
Amazed, they want to see this stranger,
Invite him; ask questions of his country.
At first light they sweep flowers from the gate.
At dusk fishermen, woodmen ride the stream.
They had sought refuge there from the world,
Became Immortals, never returned.

Who in those hills can know the world of men,
Who, gazing out, sees only clouds and hills?
He forgot Paradise is hard to find.
His spirit turned again to his own home.
Leaving those hidden streams and mountains,
Thought he could return when he wished,
Knew the way. How could he go wrong?
Who can know how hills and valleys alter?
He only knew the deep ways he wandered.
How many green streams in those cloudy woods?
When Spring comes a myriad Peach-filled rivers,
Who knows which one might lead to Paradise?

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Ikkyu Sojun (1394-1481)



A REST ON THE WAY BACK
FROM THE LEAKY ROAD
TO THE NEVER-LEAKING ROAD;
IF IT RAINS, LET IT RAIN;
IF IT BLOWS, LET IT BLOW.

MY SELF OF LONG AGO,
IN NATURE NON-EXISTENT;
NOWHERE TO GO WHEN DEAD,
NOTHING AT ALL.

WHEN ASKED, HE ANSWERED;
NO QUESTION, NO ANSWER;
THEN MASTER DARUMA
MUST HAVE HAD
NOTHING IN HIS MIND.

OUR MIND --
WITHOUT END,
WITHOUT BEGINNING,
THOUGH IT IS BORN, THOUGH IT DIES --
THE ESSENCE OF EMPTINESS!

ALL THE SINS COMMITTED
IN THE THREE WORLDS
WILL FADE AND DISAPPEAR
TOGETHER WITH MYSELF.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Xie Lingyun (385-433)



Dwelling in the Mountains #18

Slipping from gardens to fields
and from fields on toward lakes,

I float and drift on and on along
rivers to realms of distant water,

sage pools in mountain streams deepening into recluse dark
and hazy confusions of wild rice clearing away along islands.

Fragrant springwater swells into springtime cascades here,
and chilled waves quicken amid autumn’s passing clarity.

Wind churning up lakewater around islands full of orchids,
sunlight pours through pepper trees and on across the road,

and soaring lazily over the mid-stream island,
the pavillion there soaked in its luster, the moon in water is a perfect joy.

Lingering out shadows, mornings infuse things with clarity,
and suffusing the air, fragrant scents settle into evenings

here, where thinking of loved ones lost to me forever now,
I can look forward to the evanescent visits of cloud guests.
.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Li Po (Li Bai-701-762)



Ancient Air



I climb up high and look on the four seas,
Heaven and earth spreading out so far.
Frost blankets all the stuff of autumn,
The wind blows with the great desert's cold.
The eastward-flowing water is immense,
All the ten thousand things billow.
The white sun's passing brightness fades,
Floating clouds seem to have no end.
Swallows and sparrows nest in the wutong tree,
Yuan and luan birds perch among jujube thorns.
Now it's time to head on back again,
I flick my sword and sing Taking the Hard Road.


Li Po

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Du Fu (712-770)




Sunset

The cows and sheep are moving slowly down,
Each villager has shut his wicker gate.
The wind and moon disturb the clear night,
This landscape of rivers and hills is not my homeland.
A spring flows from the stones of a darkening cliff,
The autumn dew drips on the grass's roots.
My white head is within the brightness of the lamp,
What need for the flower to flourish so?