Lit by We Love You. Kristy Lee Couzner. 25th December 2018
Christmas Poems for Kristy Lee Couzner.
Merry Christmas and much love to our Kristy Lee Couzner in Heaven
“FROM HEAVEN, IT DESCENDS LIKE, SAKURA PETALS DROP” ~ KOBAYASHI ISSA
I like to wash,
the dust of this world
In the droplets of dew.
With dewdrops dripping,
I wish somehow I could wash
this perishing world
Won’t you come and see
loneliness? Just one leaf
from the kiri tree.
A clear waterfall —
into the ripples
fall green pine-needles
overhanging pine…
adding its mite of needles
to the waterfall
The pine tree of Shiogoshi
Trickles all night long
Shiny drops of moonlight.
Culture’s beginnings:
rice-planting songs from the heart
of the country
Singing, planting rice,
village songs more lovely
than famous city poems
Spring air —
Woven moon
And plum scent.
Heated spring air
In tiny waves of an inch or two –
Above wintery grass.
Fresh spring!
The world is only Nine days old –
These fields and mountains!
Spring!
A nameless hill
in the haze.
it is spring!
a hill without a name
in thin haze
Oh, these spring days!
A nameless little mountain,
wrapped in morning haze!
Spring too, very soon!
They are setting the scene for it —
plum tree and moon.
From all directions
Winds bring petals of cherry
Into the grebe lake.
That great blue oak
indifferent to all blossoms
appears more noble
The oak tree stands
noble on the hill even in
cherry blossom time
Spring rain
conveyed under the trees
in drops.
Spring rain
Leaking through the roof,
Dripping from the wasps’ nest.
In this warm spring rain,
tiny leaves are sprouting
from the eggplant seed
The sun’s way:
hollyhocks turn toward it
through all the rains of May.
Spring departs.
Birds cry
Fishes’ eyes are filled with tears
No blossoms and no moon,
and he is drinking sake
all alone!
Temple bells die out.
The fragrant blossoms remain.
A perfect evening!
A little girl under a peach tree,
Whose blossoms fall into the entrails
Of the earth.
By the old temple,
peach blossoms;
a man treading rice.
Unknown spring —
Plum blossom
Behind the mirror.
With plum blossom scent,
this sudden sun emerges
along a mountain trail
Very brief:
Gleam of blossoms in the treetops
On a moonlit night.
From among the peach-trees
“Blooming everywhere,”
The first cherry blossoms.
A lovely spring night
suddenly vanished while we
viewed cherry blossoms
From every direction
cherry blossom petals blow
into Lake Biwa
The lilies!
The stems, just as they are,
the flowers, just as they are.
The bee emerging
from deep within the peony
departs reluctantly
Slender, so slender
its stalk bends under dew —
little yellow flower
For those who proclaim
they’ve grown weary of children,
there are no flowers
Exhausted, I sought
a country inn, but found
wisteria in bloom
Morning glory trailing —
All day the gate-
bolt’s fastened.
Breakfast enjoyed
in the fine company of
morning glories
The morning glories
bloom, securing the gate
in the old fence
bush-clover flowers —
they sway but do not drop
their beads of dew
Flower
under harvest sun – stranger
To bird, butterfly.
without turning
into a butterfly, autumn deepens
for the worm
Deep into autumn
and this caterpillar
still not a butterfly
A caterpillar
this deep in fall
still not a butterfly
With every gust of wind,
the butterfly changes its place
on the willow.
On the white poppy,
a butterfly’s torn wing
is a keepsake
butterflies flit…
that is all, amid the field
of sunlight
butterflies flit
in a field of sunlight
that is all
Will you turn toward me?
I am lonely too,
This autumn evening.
As firmly cemented clam-shells
Fall apart in autumn,
So I must take to the road again,
Farewell, my friends.
Matsuo Bashō