Topic: Toki-no-ge

[nichi]

Toki-no-Ge (Satori Poem)

By Muso Soseki
(1275 - 1351)
English version by W. S. Merwin

 

Year after year
          I dug in the earth
                    looking for the blue of heaven
only to feel
          the pile of dirt
                    choking me
until once in the dead of night
          I tripped on a broken brick
                    and kicked it into the air
and saw that without a thought
          I had smashed the bones
                    of the empty sky

 

[Michael]

i like that one

[Nichi]

Toki-no-Ge (Satori Poem)

By Muso Soseki
(1275 - 1351)
English version by W. S. Merwin

 

Year after year
          I dug in the earth
                    looking for the blue of heaven
only to feel
          the pile of dirt
                    choking me
until once in the dead of night
          I tripped on a broken brick
                    and kicked it into the air
and saw that without a thought
          I had smashed the bones
                    of the empty sky 

I keep running into this poem...