tanka

These are my modern English translations of Eihei Dogen Kigen, a master of the Japanese waka poetic form. Eihei Dogen Kigen (1200-1253), also called Dogen Zenji, was born in Kyoto, Japan. He was a Japanese Buddhist monk and a prolific poet, writer and philosopher. He was also the founder of the Soto Zen sect (or Sotoshu) and the Eiheiji monastery in early Kamakura-era Japan. In addition to writing Japanese waka, Dogen Kigen was well-versed in Chinese poetry, which he learned to read at age four.

These are modern English translations of haiku written by Oriental masters of the form like Basho, Buson, Issa, Seishi, Shiki, Shugyo and Sugita. There are also translations of ancient waka and tanka, with strong resemblances to haiku. 

Grasses wilt:
the braking locomotive
grinds to a halt
—Yamaguchi Seishi, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Inspired by Maxfield Parish’s “The Dinky Bird”
 
 
On the clouds
   Of fruit-filled dreams
 
I dream
   Of castles
      And fairy tales
 
 
One ladder
   Each step—
      A movement in time
 
 
Falling along a road
   Looking at the sky
Each kiss a melody—
   The words, a broken cord
 
 
Time protected
   In knots
And fortress walls
   As we swing by
 
 

wind and sea—
the leaves we leave
for other generations
 
little by little—
the leaves line up
to be lifted by the wind
 
pure sky—
awakened to sound
of single leaf
 
trees and skies—
the generations grow
from leaf to leaf
 
running in the wind—
searching for “self”
in the veins of time
 
water and life—
a drop in the moon’s
midnight reflection
 
moon and sea—
the life force of Earth’s
wandering expression
 
step-by-step
across the plots