Floating World Poem by John thebarman

All was in order in the shack where the window framed a long deserted beach.

Black paper was neatly stacked, two bamboo brushes of fine brown hair rested in a rack alongside a bottle of white ink.

The wind had been increasing for days and though the moon was full, as night closed in we lit a single candle.

The flame flickered nervously.

We watched the lines of waves breaking in bright contrast to the black sea, lines too long for a poem, too complex and seen only in their breaking. But their message was loud, loud and repeated above the roar of the wind. We sat a long time watching.

When ready we began, a third down the paper and as the wave broke with loaded brush and firm pressure we drew the ink across the page till withdrawing our touch the breaking wave tapered to a distant fine line.

There were several lines of waves.

When we had finished I read you poems by Ryokan and you read me Teishin.

Kaze wa kiyoshi
tsuki wa sayakeshi
iza tomo ni
odori akasan
oi no nagori ni

'Was it really you I saw,
Or is this joy I still feel Only a dream? -Teishin

In this dream world
We doze
And talk of dreams -
Dream on, dream on,
As much as you wish. -Ryokan

Here with you
I could remain
For countless days and years,
Silent as the bright moon
We gazed at together. - Teishin

If your heart
Remains unchanged,
We will be bound as tightly
As an endless vine
For ages and ages. -Ryokan

After that, Teishin didn't get back to him for a while, So he wrote:

Have you forgotten me
Or lost the path here?
Now I wait for you
All day, every day.
But you do not appear. -Ryokan

The moon, I'm sure,
Is shining brightly
High above the mountains,
But gloomy clouds
Shroud the peak in darkness. -Teishin

You must rise above
The gloomy clouds
Covering the mountaintop.
Otherwise, how will you
Ever see the brightness? -Ryokan

Seems that they didn't see each other again for a while after that, but when Ryokan was dying, Teishin came to be with him at the moment of death. They again exchanged a few poems.

'When, when? ' I sighed.
The one I longed for Has finally come;
With her now, I have all that I need. -Ryokan

We monastics are said
To overcome the realm
Of life and death -
Yet I cannot bear the Sorrow of our parting. -Teishin

Everywhere you look
The crimson leaves Scatter -
One by one, Front and back. -Ryokan

And his last words were:

My legacy - What will it be?
Flowers in spring,
The cuckoo in summer,
And the crimson maples
Of autumn...'