lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)
lnhammer ([personal profile] lnhammer) wrote2013-09-03 07:00 am

Kokinshu #443

Miscanthus plumes (obana)

    We see that it is,
yet it's hard to rely on.
    Shall I be convinced
that this cicada-shell world
really doesn't exist?

—25 August 2013

Original author unknown. Obana is the plume or ear of the miscanthus (see #242), an all-autumn topic. I'm pleased to see someone actively wrestling with standard Buddhist doctrine. (Interestingly, searches found this one quoted on a Zen temple's website.) "Yet" is interpretive, but some sort of contrast seems needed to make sense.


ari to mite
tanomu zo kataki
utsusemi no
yo o-ba nashi to ya
omoinashitemu


---L.

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