Learn of the pine from the pine, and of the bamboo from the bamboo. To do so you must leave behind the self, and enter into the object, until its hidden glimmering shows itself and a poem forms of its own accord.
Harvest moon — / walking around the pond / all night long.
Even in Kyoto — hearing the cuckoo's cry — I long for Kyoto.
Lucretius·-55 ADWhat once sprung from the earth sinks back into the earth.
Albert Camus·1937Knowing that certain nights whose sweetness lingers will keep returning to the earth and sea after we are gone, yes, this helps us to die.
Marcus Aurelius·180 ADRemember that man lives only in the present, in this fleeting instant; all the rest of his life is either past and gone, or not yet revealed. Short, therefore, is man's life, and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he dwells.
