Don’t dye it, don’t pull it out,
let it grow all over your head.
No medicine can stop the whiteness,
the blackness won’t last out the fall.
Lay your head on a quiet pillow, hear the cicadas,
idly incline it to watch the waters flow.
The reason we can’t rise to this broader view of life
is because, white hair, you grieve us so!
~Ch’i-chi (864-937) Translation: Burton Watson
Nikon D750 f/7.1 1/320 44mm 100 ISO (neutral density lens)
moss blossoms bloom
in a little crack…
stone Jizo
~Issa (www.haikuguy.com)
Nikon D750 f/1.8 1/800 35mm 100 ISO
On a mountain slope,
Solitary, uncompanioned,
Stands a cherry tree.
Except for you, lonely friend,
To others I am unknown
~Abbot Gyoson
I’ll forget the trail
I marked out on Mount Yoshino
last year,
go searching for blossoms
in directions I’ve never been before
~Saigyō (B Watson, Poems of a Mountain Home)
It is by its breath
That autumn’s leaves of trees and grass
Are wasted and driven.
So they call this mountain wind
The wild one, the destroyer.
~Fun’ya no Yasuhide
Nikon D750 f/4.5 1/40s 24mm 100 ISO
On the waters
of the flowing river
a jewel, a bead of foam —
the pity
of this fugitive world
~Saigyō (Poems of a Mountain Home, B Watson)
Nikon D750 f/9 1/160 90 mm
Is it because my mind
keeps dwelling
on every worldly thing
that the world seems
more hateful to me than ever?
~SaigO (1118-1181 B Watson, Poems of a Mountain Home)
Nikon D750 f/4.5 1/40s 85mm 100 ISO
Should I leave this burning house
of ceaseless thoughts
and taste the pure rain’s
single truth
falling upon my skin?
Izumi Shikibu (J Hirshfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)
rhythm… Nikon D750 f3/2 1/320 40mm 100 ISO
On a troubled current
we grow old in this world–
today’s rain-filled stream
will only increase
with tears.
~Izumi Shikibu (J Hirshfield & M Aratani, The Ink Dark Moon)
rule of thirds…rhythm…symmetry Sony NEX-5N f/8 1/200s 96mm
their traveling hats
looking small…
mist
~Issa (www.haiku.guy)
emigrate IIII Nikon D750 f/3.3 1/1,000 40mm
Hop on over to Cee’s Photography to join this week’s black and white photo challenge.
What is in front of my eyes
changes into a scene of the past —
a winter shower!
~Buson (Y Sawa & E Shiffert, Haiku Master Buson)
Nikon D750 f/8 1/1,000 70 mm
Both field and mountain
All taken by the snow
Till nothing yet remains.
~Iōsō (J Clements, The Moon in the Pines)
Sony NEX-SN f/8 1/800 80mm
You must be logged in to post a comment.