This phantasm
of falling petals vanishes into
moon and flowers …
~Okyo*

*cited:
Japanese Death Poems
Yoel Hoffmann
This phantasm
of falling petals vanishes into
moon and flowers …
~Okyo*

*cited:
Japanese Death Poems
Yoel Hoffmann
Children,
let’s go to the mountain
to view violets.
If they scatter away tomorrow,
what can we do?
~Ryokan*

*cited:
Sky Above, Great Wind
Trans: K Tanahashi
Only today left
of spring. My walking
ended it.
~Buson*

*cited:
Haiku Master Buson
Trans: Y Sawa & E Shiffert
On a mountain slope
Solitary, uncompanioned
Stands a cherry tree.
Except for you, lonely friend,
To others I am unknown.
~Abbot Gyoson*

*cited:
Spring is going;
hesitating and indecisive,
the last cherry blossom
~Buson*

*cited:
Haiku Master Buson
Trans: Y Sawa & E Shiffert
Does that bird
think of past times
as it flies, singing
over the shade in the spring…
of weeping willows?

Within but a single night
The cherry blossoms vanish
And are completely gone
~Issa*

*cited:
In the peaceful light
Of the ever-shining sun
In the days of spring,
Why do the cherry’s new-blown blooms
Scatter like restless thoughts
~Ki no Tomonori*

cited:
As I view the moon,
Many thoughts come into my mind,
And my rememberings are sad
Yet, it is not for me alone,
That this spring has come.

Color of the flower
Has already faded away,
While in idle thoughts
My life passes vainly by,
As I watch the long rains fall
~Ono no Komachi*

*cited:
making the lawn
a sit-down tea house…
summer trees.
~Issa*

submitted in response to Lost In Translation’s black and white photo challenge
*cited:
On a pitch-dark night road
I get lost
watching the moon
set behind the faraway mountain
~Ryokan*

*cited:
Sky above, Great Wind
Trans: K Takahashi
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