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Buddhist : Zen / Chan
17th Century

About Masahide

Timeline (1657? - 1723)

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English version by
Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto

Original Language
Japanese

Barn's burnt down --

Commentary by
Ivan M. Granger

Themes
  Fire
  Moon
 
 
 

 

Recommended Books

Japanese Death Poems, Translated by Yoel Hoffman
Zen Poetry: Let the Spring Breeze Enter, Translated by Lucien Stryk / Translated by Takashi Ikemoto

Barn's burnt down --
now
I can see the moon.

 

 

-- from Zen Poetry: Let the Spring Breeze Enter, Translated by Lucien Stryk / Translated by Takashi Ikemoto

Amazon.com

 

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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

I haven't been able to find out much about the life of the Japanese poet Masahide, but I love this haiku. Using less than even the traditional 5-7-5 syllable structure (in this translation), it still manages to say so much.

The moon, as I've pointed out elsewhere, represents Buddha-mind, awakened awareness. The burnt barn can represent worldly calamity and loss which can suddenly open us to the radical, serene truth that surrounds us everywhere; and it can also represent our own self-enclosing thoughts, "burned" down by spiritual practice and the ecstatic psychic collapse that can result.


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Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.