One Robe, One Bowl: The Zen Poetry of RyōkanThe hermit-monk Ryokan, long beloved in Japan both for his poetry and for his character, belongs in the tradition of the great Zen eccentrics of China and Japan. His reclusive life and celebration of nature and the natural life also bring to mind his younger American contemporary, Thoreau. Ryokan's poetry is that of the mature Zen master, its deceptive simplicity revealing an art that surpasses artifice. Although Ryokan was born in eighteenth-century Japan, his extraordinary poems, capturing in a few luminous phrases both the beauty and the pathos of human life, reach far beyond time and place to touch the springs of humanity. This book offers a representative selection of his verse in both Chinese and Japanese modes. |
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autumn bakufu bamboo grove beg food Buddha Buddhist calligraphy Chinese poems chrysanthemums cliff clouds have drifted covered day of begging delusion distant mountains Dōgen dream Echigo EMPTY BOWL Entsu-ji faded famous fireplace is cold firewood flowers forest freezing rain fresh gentle Gogō-an grass green mountains Han-shan heart hermitage Hōsai hototogisu incense Itoigawa Izumozaki Japan Japanese Kokusen Kugami Kyoto left the world light snow listening lonely long winter night Matsuno-o mist monk morning mujō mushin Niigata Prefecture no-mind peach blossoms persimmons pines and oaks play plum blossoms return home rice river bank robe Ryō Ryōkan's poems Ryōkan's poetry sakè saw Ryōkan Shinto shō shrine sit in zazen Sitting quietly song Sōtō Zen sound spring day staff summer Tachibana Inan TAMAGAWA STATION Teishin temple Tokyo uguisu Unable to sleep village voice wait walk Weatherhill willows wind blows window winter goose cries wisteria zafu