limitations gone
since my mind fixed on the moon
clarity and serenity
make something for which
there's no end in sight
in the box below I posted the Italian text of Leopardi's poem, 'L'infinito'.. here is the English text - for those who could be interested in the parallel I tried.. Saigyo's and Leopardi's poem.. The Infinite Always dear to me was this solitary hill and this hedge, which, from so many parts of the far horizon, the sight excludes. But sitting and gazing endless spaces beyond it, and inhuman silences, and the deepest quiet, I fake myself in my thoughts; where almost my heart scares. As the wind I hear rustling through these trees, I, that infinite silence, to this voice keep comparing: and I feel the eternal, the dead seasons, the present, and living one, and the sound of her. So in this immensity drown my own thoughts: and sinking in this sea is sweet to me.
reading this beautiful waka by Saigyo, other beautiful verse come to my mind.. very different ones (and written c.1000 years after this tanka) , but describing the same deep feeling.. It is 'L'infinito', by the Italian poet Leopardi: here it is, in its Italian text: L'INFINITO « Sempre caro mi fu quest'ermo colle, e questa siepe, che da tanta parte dell'ultimo orizzonte il guardo esclude. Ma sedendo e mirando, interminati spazi di là da quella, e sovrumani silenzi, e profondissima quiete io nel pensier mi fingo, ove per poco il cor non si spaura. E come il vento odo stormir tra queste piante, io quello infinito silenzio a questa voce vo comparando: e mi sovvien l'eterno, e le morte stagioni, e la presente e viva, e il suon di lei. Così tra questa immensità s'annega il pensier mio: e il naufragar m'è dolce in questo mare. » (Giacomo Leopardi,1818)
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
When all limitations are gone Then the mind has a clear vision of the truth. Excellent!