art

enlightenment

Inhale, exhale

Forward, back

Living, dying:

Arrows, let flow each to each

Meet midway and slice

The void in aimless flight-

Thus I return to the source ~Gesshu Soko

cattailsinsun

Hoffmann (Japanese Death Poems, p. 97) notes that within this poem the arrows after hitting in midair do not fall to the ground, but continue in directionless flight through empty space. He further states that the image within this poem tells of a state of consciousness in  which the concept of the ordinary mind forming one’s outlook on the world have vanished and polarities (good-bad, life-death) are embraced in an enlightened being.

black & white sunday: after and before

A bamboo sprout

Picked too soon-

It would bloom in glory

But for man

~Issa (trans: N Yuasa: The Year of My Life)

irisbnw

In the above haiku, Issa has written about imaginary blossoms.  Yuasa notes that bamboo sprouts are harvested when they are young and soft and that they bear no flowers even if they are left to grow.  After: “alternative facts”  Before: “imaginary blossoms”

iris

lost in translation

black and white sunday: traces of the past

Generally speaking, Heaven and Earth endow the generality of men with the same mediocre qualities, so that one is hardly distinguishable from the other.  Not so, however, in the rare instances of the Exceptionally Good and the Exceptionally Evil that flash through the pages of history. The first embodies the Perfect Norm of Heaven and Earth; the second, its Horrid Deviations. The first comes into the world when Harmony is to prevail; the second, when Catastrophe impends. The first ushers in peace and order; the second brings war and strife. Examples of the first are the Emperors Yao, Shun, Yu, and T’ang, the Kings Wen and Wu, the sages Confucius and Mencius, and such philosophers as the Ch’eng brothers and Chu Hsi; examples of the second are the tyrants Ch’ih Yu and Kung Kung, Chieh and Chou and the First Emperor, and such usurpers and traitors as Wang Mang, Huan Wen, and Ch’in K’uai.

window

Today, under our divine Sovereign, peace and prosperity reign…which manifest itself in the form of sweet dew and gentle breeze.  …there is no place under the clear sky and the bright sun for the Deviations from the Norm; these had to hide their ugly heads in the abysmal chasms in the bowels of the earth, where they lie inert and powerless. But occasionally, pressed upon by the clouds or wafted by the winds, traces of these evil elements find their way into the upper air and clash with the traces of the Norm, causing violence storms and thunder and lighting. (Trans: Chi-Chun Wang: Tsao Huueh-Chin, Dream of the Red Chamber, pp. 22-23)

I began the day with the intention to nourish myself by avoiding the Twitter Wars by engaging in literature; that is, Dream of the Red Chamber which was written sometime around 1742.  Yet, as my eyes fell upon page 22 I stumbled out of historical China and into the present time, this time of Horrid Deviations.

This passage and image are  submitted in response to the”traces of the past” challenge posed by Lost in Translation.

black & white sunday: darkness and light

Purple butterflies

fly at night through my dreams.

Butterflies, tell me,

have you seen in my village

the falling flowers of the wisteria?

~Yosano Akiko*

photofridaypets

Sleeping Enya submitted in response to Lost in Translation’s photo challenge

*cited:

Women Poets of Japan

K Rexroth & I Atsumi

 

 

today is Sunday

Did you see in the shadowy woods

a branch grew, leaves came out

of a girl’s pliant extended arms

and quickly became a tree?

Did you see?

A youth stood by the tree,

took off his deep blue coat,

and in a moment became a dove?

(The telephone keeps ringing, ringing.

No one answers, nobody is there, today is Sunday)

… ~Shinkawa Kazue*

bluebnw

*cited:

Women Poets of Japan

K Rexroth & I Atsumi