Zen Poetry by Lucien Stryk & Takashi Ikemoto

Author:Lucien Stryk & Takashi Ikemoto
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Published: 1995-03-15T04:00:00+00:00

Death

The fiery unicorn snapped

Its golden chain, moon-hare

Flung wide the silver gate:

Welcome, over Mount Shozan,

The midnight moon.

DAICHU

Seventy-six: done

With this life—

I’ve not sought heaven,

Don’t fear hell.

I’ll lay these bones

Beyond the Triple World,

Unenthralled, unperturbed.

FUYO-DOKAI (1042–1117)

A rootless tree,

Yellow leaves scattering

Beyond the blue—

Cloudless, stainless.

SOZAN-KYONIN (9th century?)

Sixty-five years,

Fifty-seven a monk.

Disciples, why ask

Where I’m going,

Nostrils to earth?

UNPO BUN-ETSU

The word at last,

No more dependencies:

Cold moon in pond,

Smoke over the ferry.

KOKO

Sixty-six years

Piling sins,

I leap into hell—

Above life and death.

TENDO-NYOJO (1163–1228)

Sky’s not high, earth not solid—

Try to see! Look,

This day, December 25 th,

The Northern Dipper blazes south.

SEIHO

Way’s not for the blind:

Groping, they might as well

Seek in the Dipper.

Old for Zen combat, only

The plough will comprehend:

I’ll climb Mount Kongo, a pine.

TOZAN-GYOSO

“No mind, no Buddha,”

Disciples prattle.

“Got skin, got marrow.”

Well, goodbye to that.

Beyond, peak glows on peak!

SHOZAN

Nothing longed for,

Nothing cast off.

In the great Void—

A, B, C, D.

One blunder, another,

Everyone seeking

Western Paradise!

LAYMAN YOKETSU

Wino, always stumbling,

Yet in drinking

I show most discretion.

Where to wind up,

Sober, this evening?

Somewhere on the river bank

I’ll find dawn’s moon.

HOMYO

Sky-piercing sword, gleaming cold,

Cuts Demons, Buddhas, Patriarchs,

Then moonlit, stirred by wind, sinks

In its jeweled scabbard. Iron bulls

Along the river bank plunge everywhere.

ZUIAN

Talking: seven steps, eight falls.

Silent: tripping once, twice.

Zenists everywhere,

Sit, let the mind be.

SHISHIN-GOSHIN (?–1339)

High wind, cold moon,

Long stream through the sky.

Beyond the gate, no shadow—

Four sides, eight directions.

SHOKAKU

Today Rakan, riding an iron horse

Backwards, climbs Mount Sumeru.

Galloping through Void,

I’ll leave no trace.

RAKAN-KEINAN

This fellow, perfect in men’s eyes,

Utters the same thing over

And over, fifty-six years. Now

Something new—spear trees, sword hills!

IKUO-JOUN

No more head shaving,

Washing flesh.

Pile high the wood,

Set it aflame!

CHITSU

Forty-nine years—

What a din!

Eighty-seven springs—

What pleasures!

What’s having? not having?

Dreaming, dreaming.

Plum trees snow-laden,

I’m ready!

UNCHO

Life’s as we

Find it—death too.

A parting poem?

Why insist?

DAIE-SOKO (1089–1163)

Iron tree blooms,

Cock lays an egg.

Over seventy, I cut

The palanquin ropes.

WAKUAN-SHITAI (1108–69)

Seventy-two years I’ve hung

The karma mirror.

Smashing through,

I’m on the Path!

IKUO-MYOTAN

All things come apart.

No saintly sign

In these poor bones—

Strew their ashes

Onto Yangtze waves.

The First Principle, everywhere.

DAISEN

Eighty-three years—at last

No longer muzzled.

The oak’s a Buddha,

Void’s pulled down.

KYURIN-EKI

Finally out of reach—

No bondage, no dependency.

How calm the ocean,

Towering the Void.

TESSHO

Fifty-three years

This clumsy ox has managed,

Now barefoot stalks

The Void—what nonsense!

SEKISHITSU-SOEI

Coming, I clench my hands,

Going, spread them wide.

Once through the barrier,

A lotus stem will

Drag an elephant!

DANKYO-MYORIN (13th century)

Seventy-eight awkward years—

A clownish lot. The mud-bull

Trots the ocean floor.

In June, snowflakes.

ICHIGEN

How Zenists carry on

About the birthless!

What madness makes me toll,

At noon, the midnight bell?

GEKKO-SOJO

This body won’t pollute

The flowering slope—

Don’t turn that earth.

What need a samadhi flame?

Heaped firewood’s good enough.

SEKIOKU-SEIKYO

Mount Sumeru—my fist!

Ocean—my mouth!

Mountain crumbles, ocean dries.

Where does the jeweled hare leap,

Where reels the golden crow?

KIKO

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