The First Dream of the Year
The year’s first dream:
still in my nose –
the heart of what it is to be a flower…
– – – Chiyo Ni
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…cherry blossom dream…
A snow-laden branch snaps
and from a dream of Yoshino
I awake – – –
– – – Buson
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I feel it in my bones –
on this futon –
the frost this night!
– – – Buson
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Sleeping alone now – – –
cold, to a frosty night
I wake up
– – – Chiyo-Ni
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Suddenly –
often – I wake up…
and if I dreamed I start awake…
…still startled…
…and so sad…
– – – Princess Shikishi
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– falling leaves at dawn –
Is that a winter shower –
that waking on the floor
I hear?
– – – leaves that did not make it,
blowing in the winter storm – – –
– – – Saigyo
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You were with me in my dreams
and I cried out when I awoke
I tried so hard to catch your hand
but you were gone…
… …and no-one’s here…
– – – Kakimoto Hitomaro
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A pale dawn moon…
and the rooster
makes me sad: I slept so long!
– – – oh now I remember! – – – …
as I lie here on my pillow…
Princess Shikishi
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The plum blossoms’ scent
awakes me again and again…
in the spring night’s darkness…
I – – – want – – – him – – – so…
– – – Izumi Shikibu
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To be alive and in this world!
…to wake up full of joy!!!
…and in the cold, cold rain…
– – – Shosa
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“Who is that awake?” – – –
The lamp in deepest night,
the cold winter rain…
– – – Ryota
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“Come sleep,” calls the husband,
waking up,
– the distant sound of the fulling block…
– Taigi
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Oil frozen,
the nightlight almost burned out –
– – – I’m awake again…
– – – Basho
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– on waking up disorientated –
“The out-house is out here,”
calls a horse, –
and the night is so cold!
– – – Issa
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It must be frost outside…
…pale sheet…the vacant space beside me…
…can’t get back to sleep – – –
– – – Soin
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Loneliness –
a falling emptiness in the pit of the stomach –
sleet falling – – – falling – – – –
– – – Joso
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…from the Saikontan…
Hearing in the quiet night the sound of a bell,
I wake from a dream within a dream –
Gazing in a clear pool, at the moon’s reflection,
I see the body outside of my body – – –
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…seeing again an old friend…
In the time it takes to be getting dark…
…I’ve fallen in love again
with the bell whose sound at daybreak
woke me
from a night of dreams…
– – – Shotetsu
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So fast you can’t see
that it has no form:
a lightning flash
wakes me
from dreaming up a song…
– – – Fujiwara no Teika
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And in my dreams:
if, what I see, I do not think real…
when I awake:
what use was it to dream?
– – – Shotetsu
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In a little grass hut
As I fall asleep, and as I wake
I say:
“Namu Shakamuni Butsu:
Kaerimi tamae…”
– – – Dogen Eihei
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Wake up! wake up!
I want to be your friend – – –
– – – sleeping butterfly!!!
– – – Basho
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A spring night’s dream –
and when the floating bridge
is broken – the peaks
are tearing trails of clouds
in the clear dawn sky – – –
– – – Fujiwara no Teika
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Suddenly awake,
deep, deep in the mountains –
Sun over the ridge:
daybreak in the valley –
autumn in the moon – – –
– – – Sozei