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
Tag archives: Poetry
moon cloud – secluded within snow
moon cloud softly emergingbreathing plumes of blue snow dustswirling aroundour scratched out rooftop
Waves breaking through light – Kusen collaboration
John Fraser’s Kusen Master Dogen’s poem ‘Zazen Practice’: The moon mirroredBy a mind freeOf all distractions;Even the waves, breaking,Are reflecting its light We have a primitive idea what a symbol is. Usually, we think it’s like a code. So, in this case, ‘Moon’ will mean ‘Enlightenment’, or ‘Buddha Mind’, something like that. But a symbol […]
Discovered in my sketchbook poetry notes
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 wakoshi no shirayamafuyugomorikouri mo yuki mokumo kakari keri my Koshiwhite mountaincozy winter denice and snowoverlaid 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 […]
Transient worlds within worlds, and divergence – with translations of Basho and Ryoukan
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
rocky mountain passes, transparent clouds – no up no down, passing between horizons non continuous
Ben Ledi – pulsating mountain
temporal voids of cerulean blue – ice holes, pulsating – falling apart rapidly plummeting
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.