Even in a person
most times indifferent
to things around him
they waken feelings–
the first winds of autumn
~Saigyō
SaigyO
put it aside
Bell Deer Mountain
I shake off this sad world,
put it aside,
but, what lies in store for me,
what note will I sound?
~Saigyo (B Watson, Poems of a Mountain Home)
looking back
How have I spent
these many years and months
in this world
where those here even yesterday
are no longer here today?
~Saigyo (B Watson: Poems of a Mountain Home)
wpc: textures
Across the face of the field
wilted grasses
darken
the chill clouding-over
of a sudden storm sky
~Saigyo (B Watson: Poems of a Mountain Home)
twilight bell
The twilight bell
I waited for
is sounding —
if tomorrow is granted me,
I’ll listen for it again.
~Saigyo (B Watson: Poems of a Mountain Home)
thoughts
Would the flames of thought
that envelop your body
ever be quenched?
Never but of the blowing
of these cool winds.
~Saigyo (B Watson, Poems of a Mountain Home)
in place of morn’ dew
regrets as I may,
even the bell
has a different sound now,
and soon frost will fall
in place of morning dew
~Saigyo (B. Watson, Poems of a Mountain Home)
thursday’s special: s-curve
Today again
I’ll go to the hill
where the pine winds blow –
perhaps to meet my friend
who was cooling himself there yesterday.
~ Saigyo (Poems of a Mountain Home)
…submitted in response to Lost in Translation’s photo challenge: s-curve.
the world seems…
Is it because my mind
keeps dwelling
on every worldly thing
the the word seems
more hateful to me than ever?
~SaigyO (Poems of a Mountain Home)
SaigyO was born in 1118 in the capital city, Kyoto. When he was twenty-two he suddenly left his post as an elite private guard of Emperor Toba to become a Buddhist priest. I find it interesting how his poem written almost a thousand years ago resonates with me today especially when I think of Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr’s (who was born in 1808) translated epigram, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
mind’s dreaming
In a mountain village
when I’m lost in the dark
of the mind’s dreaming
the sound of the wind
blows me to brightness.
~Saigyo (Trans: B Watson, Poems of a Mountain Home)
what’s beyond
I don’t know
what’s beyond the mountain
where the late sunlight streams
but already I’ve sent
my mind on ahead
~Saigyo (Trans: B Watson, Poems of a Mountain Home)
how lonely….
on a tree standing
by the cliff in an old farm
a dove –
how lonely his voice
calling for a friend this evening ~Saigyo (M Ueda, Far Beyond the Field)
a meditative journey 
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