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

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

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

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.

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?

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

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

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