Saigyō Quotes

Every single thing changes and is changing always in this world. Yet with the same light the moon goes on shining.

This place of mine never is entered by humans come for conversation, only by the mute moon's light shafts that slip in between the trees.

I'd like to divide myself in order to see, among these mountains, each and every flower of every cherry tree.

Whatever it is, / I cannot understand it, / although gratitude / stubbornly overcomes me / until I'm reduced to tears.

The cherries' only fault: the crowds that gather when they bloom

Now seen...now gone, The butterfly flits in and out Through fence-hung flowers; But a life lived so close to them I envy...though it's here and gone.

Tightly held by rocks Through winter, the ice today Begins to come undone: A way-seeker also is the water, Melting, murmuring from the moss.

Limitations gone: Since my mind fixed on the moon, Clarity and serenity Make something for which There's no end in sight.

I'd like to dividemyself in order to see, among these mountains, each and every flowerof every cherry tree.

Limitations gone:Since my mind fixed on the moon, Clarity and serenityMake something for whichThere's no end in sight.

Tightly held by rocksThrough winter, the ice todayBegins to come undone:A way-seeker also is the water, Melting, murmuring from the moss.

Today's satori:Such a change of mind wouldNot exist withoutMy lifelong habit of havingMy mind immersed in blossoms.

Beyond this life andThis world I'll have it tilMy heart's content:The bright moon that passed overThe horizon before I had my fill.

Last year, Yoshino, I walked away bending branchesTo point me to blossoms--Which now are everywhere and I canGo where I've never been before.

Returning to whereIt used to see blossoms, My mind, changed, Will stay on at Yoshino...Home now, and see anew.