Eihei Dogen Kigen Translations
These are my modern English translations of haiku by Eihei Dogen Kigen, a Japanese master of the form. He was also a Japanese Buddhist priest and the founder of the Soto school of Zen in Japan.
This world?
Moonlit dew
flicked from a crane's bill.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Seventy-one?
How long
can a dewdrop last?
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation of his jisei (death poem) by Michael R. Burch
Dewdrops beading grass-blades
die before dawn;
may an untimely wind not hasten their departure!
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Unaware it protects
the hilltop paddies,
the scarecrow seems useless to itself.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Outside my window the plums, blossoming,
within their curled buds, contain the spring;
the moon is reflected in the cup-like whorls
of the lovely flowers I gather and twirl.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
ALTERNATE TRANSLATIONS
Dewdrops beading blades of grass
have so little time to shine before dawn;
let the autumn wind not rush too quickly through the field!
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
To what shall we compare this world?
To moonlit dew
flicked from a crane's bill.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
Keywords/Tags: translation, haiku, Japan, Japanese, modern English, nature, dew, dewdrop, dewdrops, grass, crane, scarecrow, rice paddies, dawn, tanka, waka
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem