Saigyō Quotes

Returning to whereIt used to see blossoms,My mind, changed,Will stay on at Yoshino...Home now, and see anew.

Saigyō

Beyond this life andThis world I'll have it tilMy heart's content:The bright moon that passed overThe horizon before I had my fill.

Saigyō

Last year, Yoshino,I walked away bending branchesTo point me to blossoms--Which now are everywhere and I canGo where I've never been before.

Saigyō

Now seen...now gone,The butterfly flits in and outThrough fence-hung flowers;But a life lived so close to themI envy...though it's here and gone.

Saigyō

Today's satori:Such a change of mind wouldNot exist withoutMy lifelong habit of havingMy mind immersed in blossoms.

Saigyō

I'd like to dividemyself in order to see,among these mountains,each and every flowerof every cherry tree.

Saigyō

Limitations gone:Since my mind fixed on the moon,Clarity and serenityMake something for whichThere's no end in sight.

Saigyō

Tightly held by rocksThrough winter, the ice todayBegins to come undone:A way-seeker also is the water,Melting, murmuring from the moss.

Saigyō