Page:Anthology of Japanese Literature.pdf/268

  

[by Kan’ami Kiyotsugu]



"Persons"

The mountains are not high on which we hide
 * The mountains are not high on which we hide
 * The lonely deepness of our hearts.

I am a priest from the Koya Hills
 * Coming down now to make my way to the city.

The Buddha that was is gone away.
 * The Buddha to be has not yet come to the world.

At birth we woke to dream in this world between.
 * What then shall we say is real?
 * By chance we took the forms of men
 * From a thousand possibilities.
 * We stumbled on the treasure of the holy law
 * The seed of all salvation
 * And then with thoughtful hearts we put our bodies
 * In these thin and ink-black robes.
 * We knew of lives before this birth
 * We knew of lives before this birth