Ryokan, Buson, Issa and Layman P’ang

[Guest guest]

Though I think not

To think about it,

I do think about it

And shed tears

Thinking about it.

 

-Ryokan-

 

 

 

Ryokan Nobly, the great priest

deposits his daily stool

in bleak winter fields

 

Buson

 

 

 

Where beauty is, then there is ugliness;

where right is, also there is wrong.

Knowledge and ignorance are interdependent;

delusion and enlightenment condition each other.

Since olden times it has been so.

How could it be otherwise now?

Wanting to get rid of one and grab the other

is merely realizing a scene of stupidity.

Even if you speak of the wonder of it all,

how do you deal with each thing changing?

 

-Ryokan-

 

 

 

 

 

The past is already past.

Don't try to regain it.

The present does not stay.

Don't try to touch it.

 

From moment to moment.

The future has not come;

Don't think about it

Beforehand.

 

Whatever comes to the eye,

Leave it be.

There are no commandments

To be kept;

There's no filth to be cleansed.

 

With empty mind really

Penetrated, the dharmas

Have no life.

 

When you can be like this,

You've completed

The ultimate attainment.

 

Layman P'ang (740-808

 

 

 

 

Even though I'm in Kyoto,

when the kookoo cries,

I long for Kyoto.

 

Issa