Presented to Hermit Wei

DU FU

When last we parted you were not yet married;
Suddenly, your children stand in a row before me!
Happy to welcome their father’s friend
They ask me from where I come,
And before all their questions are answered
Have brought in wine;
Spring leeks are cut in the night rain,
The freshly steamed rice has a sprinkling of yellow millet;
To mark this unlooked-for encounter, my host says,
We must drain ten large cups of wine;
But today even ten cannot go to my head,
So touched by your unchanging friendship am I.
Tomorrow mountains will separate us again,
Neither knowing what the future holds.

Homecoming

HO CHIH-CHANG (659-745)

When young I left home,
in old age, returned.

I still speak with a local accent,
but my hair is gray.

Village children greet me,
but can’t guess who I am.

They laugh and ask:
“Where do you come from, Sir?”

from “Where the World Does Not Follow”, translated by Mike O’Connor

The affairs of my hometown

WANG WEI (701-761)

You’ve arrived
from my hometown,
and must know
of its affairs.

When you departed,
was the winter plum
by the silk-framed windows
blooming?

from “Where the World Does Not Follow”, translated by Mike O’Connor

Haikuchallenge – still #bemoan, senryu

old frog
bemoaning the water
— too cold!

Haikuchallenge – more #bemoan

on Mondays or Fridays
people bemoaning people
— so curious!

haikuchallenge – #bemoan

bemoaning the state of our world
— the sky is sometimes blue
sometimes not

haikuchallenge – #clarity

splash!
an old frog disturbs
the clarity of water

haikuchallenge – #blot

a blot on her pants
— this old woman
has lost all sense of shame

haikuchallenge #blot

blot on the country road
carefully drawn
— a smashed frog

mornings

“mornings are good!
leaves fallen
leaves yet to fall”
—– Santoka Taneda