(701–762)
Questions Answered
YOU ask why I live
alone in the mountain forest,
and I smile and am silent
until even my soul grows quiet.
The peach trees blossom.
The water continues to flow.
I live in the other world,
one that lies beyond the human.
[S.H.]
Old Dust
WE live our lives as wanderers
until, dead, we finally come home.
One quick trip between heaven and earth,
then the dust of a thousand generations.
The Moon Rabbit mixes elixirs for nothing.
The Tree of Long Life is kindling.
Dead, our white bones lie silent
when pine trees lean toward spring.
Remembering, I sigh; looking ahead, I sigh once more:
This life is mist. What fame? What glory?
[S.H.]
Zazen on Ching-t’ing Mountain
THE birds have vanished from the sky.
Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.
[S.H.]