Saigyo

thumb|In a dream I sawthe winds of spring scatteringthe cherry blossoms—and after I woke, the soundwas still rustling in my breast. Saigyo (西行; 1118–1190) was a Japanese poet of the late Heian and early Kamakura period. Quotes The pathway I markedwhen last year I made my wayinto Yoshino—I abandon now to visitblossoms I have not yet seen. Traditional Japanese Poetry: An Anthology (1991), Steven D. Carter What's to be done?I thought I was past caringfor the springbut my frozen water pipehas made me long for it again Gazing at the Moon: Buddhist Poems of Solitude (2021), McKinney, M. thumb|right|Let me not spend my lifelamenting the world’s sorrowsfor abovein the wide skythe moon shines pure Let me not spend my lifelamenting the world’s sorrowsfor abovein the wide skythe moon shines pure Gazing at the Moon: Buddhist Poems of Solitude (2021), McKinney, M. That spring long agoat Naniwa in Tsu—was it all a dream?Now only dead leaves on the reedsrustle in the passing wind. Traditional Japanese Poetry: An Anthology (1991), Steven D. Carter thumb|How I delightin this well-timed snowthat buries the mountain pathbehind me as I enterintent on long seclusion That one back homewhom I promised to think aboutwhen I saw the moon:on this night perhaps she toowill be soaking her sleeves with tears. Traditional Japanese Poetry: An Anthology (1991), Steven D. Carter How I delightin this well-timed snowthat buries the mountain pathbehind me as I enterintent on long seclusion Gazing at the Moon: Buddhist Poems of Solitude (2021), McKinney, M. This is what I want:to die in the springtime,beneath the blossoms—midway through the Second Month,when the moon is at the full. Traditional Japanese Poetry: An Anthology (1991), Steven D. Carter In a dream I sawthe winds of spring scatteringthe cherry blossoms—and after I woke, the soundwas still rustling in my breast. Traditional Japanese Poetry: An Anthology (1991), Steven D. Carter thumb|The cherries'only fault:the crowdsthat gatherwhen they bloom. The cherries'only fault:the crowdsthat gatherwhen they bloom. Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600-1900 (2008) It creates a hearteven in those among uswho think of themselvesas indifferent to all things—the world. this first wind of autumn. Traditional Japanese Poetry: An Anthology (1991), Steven D. Carter If not for solitude,how dismal my life would be! Traditional Japanese Poetry: An Anthology (1991), Steven D. Carter Even a personfree of passionwould be moved to sadness:autumn evening in a marshwhere snipes fly up. Saigyo: Poems of a Mountain Home, 1991, Watson, Burton, New York: Columbia University Press, p. 81 thumb|right|Trailing on the wind,the smoke of Mount Fujifades in the sky,moving like my thoughtstoward some unknown end 風になびく富士の煙の空にきえてゆくへも知らぬわが思ひかなkaze ni nabikufuji no keburi nosora ni kieteyukue mo shiranuwaga omoi kana Just as smoke drifts on the winds over Mount Fuji,Only to vanish – whither no one knows –So, too, does my soul wander on. The Literature of Mt Fuji: Japanese Classical Literature, Chuo University (2017) The wisps of smoke from Fujiyield to the wind and lose themselvesin sky, in emptiness,which takes as well the aimless passionsthat through my life burned deep inside. William R. Lafleur, Awesome Nightfall: The Life, Times, and Poetry of Saigyō (2012) Trailing on the wind,the smoke of Mount Fujifades in the sky,moving like my thoughtstoward some unknown end Burton Watson, Saigyo: Poems of a Mountain Home (1991) Quotes about The poet SaigyoWould have written a poemEven for the womanWashing potatoes. Matsuo Basho, as quoted in Basho, Plodding in Saigyo's Footsteps by Meng-hu, Simply Haiku: A Quarterly Journal of Japanese Short Form Poetry, Winter 2005, vol. 3., no. 4 The fact that Saigyō composed the poem that begins, "I shall be unhappy without loneliness," shows that he made loneliness his master. He also wrote:In the mountain villagewho are you calling, yobuko-bird?I thought you lived alone.There's nothing so intriguing as living alone. Matsuo Basho, Robert Hass (1994) The Essential Haiku: Versions of Bashō, Buson, and Issa Truly fine poetry sits uncomfortably under any label. Yet, as long as qualifiers do not overwhelm what is universal in the poetry to which they have been attached, they can have value. To forbid any reference to Dante or Milton as "Christian poets" would be to deny something of central importance in the sensibilities and writing of both men. And in a similar fashion we may refer to Saigyo as Japan's foremost "Buddhist" poet—and do so without short-changing what is universal in his verse. William R. Lafleur, Awesome Nightfall: The Life, Times, and Poetry of Saigyō (2012) See also Shotetsu Fujiwara no Teika Basho Kobayashi Issa Masaoka Shiki External links Category:Poets from Japan