Author Archives: Peter John Still

…ashihiki no iwama wo tsutae…

At the mountain's foot
from a crevice in the rock...
and in this mossy water
trickling down
I make it through the world, somehow...

- - - Ryokan

…kusa no iho ni nezamete kikeba…

In my little grass hut,
every time I wake,
I hear
hailstones spattering
on the leaves of bamboo...

- - - Ryokan

…ashihiki no iwama yo tsutau…

The mountain's first slopes...
a crevice in the rock is moist and dripping: 
and in its slight trickle of mossy water
I make it through the world,
somehow...

- - - Ryokan

…kumo kakaru mine…

Clinging to the clouds... that peak
becomes a pine at the mountain's base:
through words or magic in calligraphy...
the 'songs' of 'Ancient Japan'...

- - - Shotetsu

…yamazato wa mono no sabishiki…

A mountain village
is always lonely, always...
but the thing is: 
the world's shallow, transient affairs are far away
from this corner where I reside...                                                          

- - - Ono no Komachi

…Izuku yori yoru no yumeji wo…

From where
in the night, by trails in dreams,
have you travelled over
these so high mountains... and still
the snow is deep, so deep...

- - - Ryokan

…tsuki sumeba fuyu no mizu naka sora…

When the moon is so clear,
and winter's waterless sky 
is frozen still,
then the line of ice is swept clean 
by a midnight wind...


- - - Shotetsu

…ima yori wa tsugite shirayuki…

From this time on,
more and more of this pure, white snow,
I think, will still keep piling up...
so who will break a path
and trample on through to visit???

- - - Ryokan

…aiote mata aiwakuru…

Meeting and splitting,
Coming and going are the white clouds' heart
and so, so faint are the traces they leave
that people can hardly see...

- - - Ryokan

Even this is a dream… even this is a dream… even this is a dream…

And even when you sleep,  
this world that is a dream 
is all you will ever see...
so truly 
there is never a daybreak when you wake up...

- - - Shotetsu