The Poetics of Saigyō in Eight Poems Plus One

0.

When I was about to flee the world, I sent this message to the house of an acquaintance:

I have completely

Turned my back upon the world.

I'll leave this word,

Even if there be none

To understand it.

1.

If I can find

no place fit to live,

let me live "no place" —

in this hut of sticks

flimsy as the world itself.

2.

If I no longer think

of reality

as reality,

what reason would I have

to think of dreams as dreams?

3.

At the time that the priest Jakunen invited others to contribute to a hundred-poem collection, I declined to take part. But then on the road where I was making a pilgrimage to Kumano, I had a dream. In it appeared Tankai, the administrator of Kumano, and [the poet] Shunzei. Tankai said to Shunzei: “Although all things in this world undergo change, the Way of Poetry extends unaltered even to the last age.” I opened my eyes and understood. Then I quickly wrote a verse and sent it off to Jakunen. This is what I composed there in the heart of the mountains:

`Even in an age

gone bad the lyric's Way

stays straight' -

Not seeing this in a dream,

I'd have been deaf to truth.

4.

Hearing that the Lord Steward of the City Left, Shunzei, was collecting poems and sending my uta with the accompaning poem:

Although my poems be

Mere leaves of words

Still may you find in them

A charm and coloration of

their own.

5.

Deep in the mountains

now the moon of the mind

shines clearly,

I can see enlightenment everywhere

in the mirror of my mind.

6.

I cannot be moved to pity

reflecting on my detestable life

that I have spent

by composing verses

on the moon.

7.

I have spent my life

more than sixty years,

seeking consolation

in cherry blossoms

spring after spring.

8.

This is my prayer:

To die beneath the blossoms

In the spring

In the month of kisaragi

When the moon is full.

~Saigyō 

(tr. Burton Watson: 1,2)

(tr. William R. LaFleur: 3)

(tr. Manabu Watanabe: 5,6,7)

(tr. Takagi Kiyoko: 0,8,4)