Reworking Dogen’s white mountain poem from Sanshodoei
From the Sanshodoei poems, I have been working on the English translations with John Fraser –
我庵は
こしのしらやま
冬ごもり
凍もゆきも
くもかかりけり
waga iho wa
koshi no shirayama
fuyugomori
kouri mo yuki mo
kumo kakari keri
my hut
in the white mountain of Koshi
enclosed in winter’s
ice and snow
wrapped in cloud
Eihei Dogen
moon cloud – secluded within snow
- 01 March 2018
- Poetry
moon cloud softly emerging
breathing
plumes of blue snow dust
swirling around
our scratched out rooftop
Discovered in my sketchbook poetry notes
- 10 February 2018
- Poetry
fragile
manoeuvring
through pale ochre land
gaping dark blue fissure
within the sky a light hole
self transparent
roaming path hill spontaneously
becoming deer hare
blown by atlantic gusts
everything is shimmering
temporal
Windswept Carn an Tuirc and Glas Maol
waga iho wa
koshi no shirayama
fuyugomori
kouri mo yuki mo
kumo kakari keri
my Koshi
white mountain
cozy winter den
ice and snow
overlaid by clouds
Eihei Dogen
The voice of the valley is endlessly preaching.
The colour of the mountain is nothing but pure body.
During the night, I heard eighty-four thousand verses.
How shall I expound this to others?
Su Dongpo, composed when visiting Mount Lushan overnight (quoted from ‘The Wholehearted Way’ by Koushou Uchiyama Roshi)
Transient worlds within worlds, and divergence – with translations of Basho and Ryoukan
- 14 April 2015
- Photography, Poetry
within the thin covering snow
Three Thousand Worlds
again inside this world
fragile snow falls
Ryoukan
vision of decay in mind, the wind permeates the body
Basho
at the month’s end moonless –
a one thousand year old cedar
is hugged by the storm
Basho
Diverging
Contained – Spaciousness
Tranquil – Distorted
Phenomenon – Concept
Vapour Sky 11315
- 11 March 2015
- Poetry
rocky mountain passes,
transparent clouds –
no up no down,
passing between
horizons non continuous
Ben Ledi – pulsating mountain
- 28 January 2015
- Photography, Poetry, Walking
temporal voids
of cerulean blue –
ice holes, pulsating –
falling apart rapidly
plummeting
Smeared Across Time – Kusen Collaboration with John Fraser
John’s Kusen
Poetry Dogen’s ‘Everyday Life’ [adapted]
On Unseen Mountain
A scarecrow is
Not in vain
Commentary:
The scarecrow standing over a small rice paddy would often be dressed in black, like a monk. He protects that which feeds all beings. So, Dogen is talking about the practitioner and the dharma, and the relationship between them.
Because the scarecrow is fully expressing himself, the rice, the birds, the mountain and all things can fully express themselves. Likewise the bird. Likewise the mountain.
Because the mountain is unseen, the eyes of duality are closed. Because this is so, all being leaps out of a picture and is whole, not fractured.
The scarecrow does not eat yet all things are fed
Since, unlike a Hungry Ghost, the scarecrow is not
smeared across time
More zen articles at Kusen & Notes from John
Artworks and response by John Fraser
Response to images by John Fraser:
The eyes are unseen;
All the worlds are visible
(Gatha of Xuedou, Blue Cliff Records) Unevenness, non fixing…
Compiled by Zen Master Yuanwu Keqin (Engo Kokugon, 1063-1135)
One, seven, three, five.
The truth you search for cannot be grasped.
As night advances, a bright moon illuminates the whole ocean;
The dragon’s jewels are found in every wave,
Looking for the moon, it is here, in this wave, in the next.
