Saigyō Quotes

Limitations gone:Since my mind fixed on the moon,Clarity and serenityMake something for whichThere's no end in sight.

Tightly held by rocksThrough winter, the ice todayBegins to come undone:A way-seeker also is the water,Melting, murmuring from the moss.

Returning to whereIt used to see blossoms,My mind, changed,Will stay on at Yoshino...Home now, and see anew.

Today's satori:Such a change of mind wouldNot exist withoutMy lifelong habit of havingMy mind immersed in blossoms.

I'd like to dividemyself in order to see,among these mountains,each and every flowerof every cherry tree.

Beyond this life andThis world I'll have it tilMy heart's content:The bright moon that passed overThe horizon before I had my fill.

Last year, Yoshino,I walked away bending branchesTo point me to blossoms--Which now are everywhere and I canGo where I've never been before.

Now seen...now gone,The butterfly flits in and outThrough fence-hung flowers;But a life lived so close to themI envy...though it's here and gone.