Japan: the blast of the wintry wind
As banked clouds
are swept apart by the wind,
at dawn the sudden cry
of the first wild geese
Winging across the mountains.
In a mountain village
at autumn’s end””
that’s where you learn
what sadness means
in the blast of the wintry wind.
Saigyo (XIIth Century)
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Each of the rain drops has a tale to tell
about the sorrows of people
about the hardships living things go through
about the arrival of sparrows.
Yamamura Bocho (XXth Century)
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Out in the marsh reeds
A bird cries out in sorrow,
As though it had recalled
Something better forgotten.
Ki No Tsurayuri (Xth century)
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The evening sky itself
becomes something to cherish
when I gaze at it,
seeing in one of the clouds
the smoke from her funeral pyre
Murasaki Shikibu (XI century)
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Oh you yellow leaves
that whirl upon the autumn slopes
if only for a moment
do not whirl down in such confusion,
that i may see where my beloved dwells.
Kakinomoto no Hitomaro ( 8th century)
