Saigyo Poems

Even in a person
most times indifferent
to things around him
they waken feelings
...

Thought I was free
of passion, so this melancholy
comes as surprise:
a woodcock shoots up from the marsh
...

Should I blame the moon
For bringing forth this sadness,
As if it pictured grief?
Lifting up my troubled face,
...

How wonderful, that
Her heart
Should show me kindness;
And of all the numberless folk,
...

Not stopping to mark the trail,
let me push even deeper
into the mountain!
Perhaps there's a place
...

Having seen them long,
I hold the flowers so dear
That when they scatter
I find it all the more sad
...

limitations gone
since my mind fixed on the moon
clarity and serenity
make something for which
...

In a mountain village
at autumn’s end—
that’s where you learn
what sadness means
...

He made no promise, yet
Wondering if he'll come, I wait,
In the early evening;
If only it would stay this way,
...

As banked clouds
are swept apart by the wind,
at dawn the sudden cry
of the first wild geese
...