Member Poem

These are modern English translations of haiku and other poems by Eihei Dogen Kigen, translated by Michael R. Burch. Eihei Dogen Kigen (1200-1253) was a Japanese Buddhist monk, priest, poet and philosopher who founded the Soto school of Zen. 

This world?
Moonlit dew
flicked from a crane’s bill.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen (1200-1253), 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 (1200-1253), loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Seventy-one?
How long
can a dewdrop last?
—Eihei Dogen Kigen (1200-1253), loose translation/interpretation of his jisei (death poem) by Michael R. Burch

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 (1200-1253), 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 (1200-1253), loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Unaware it protects
the hilltop paddies,
the scarecrow seems useless to itself.
—Eihei Dogen Kigen (1200-1253), loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Keywords/Tags: Eihei Dogen Kigen, Dogen, Kigen, haiku, tanka, waka, Japan, Japanese, translation, zen, dew, dewdrop