Friday, July 27, 2012

'Composed in a Dream,' by Baisao


Composed in a Dream
the 30th Day of the 10th Month
the 3rd Year of Kampo (1743)
Pain and poverty
poverty and pain
life stripped to bone
absolute nothingness
only one thing left
a bright cold moon
in the midnight window
illumining a Zen mind
on its homeward way

The above is a poem by Baisao (1675 -1763), an eccentric Japanese Zen master, and is taken from the book 'The Old Tea Seller: Life and Poetry in 18th Century Kyoto,' by Norman Waddell, p.159. For a review of this fantastic book, please click here: 
Review: The Old Tea Seller.

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