Muso Soseki, "People's Abuse"

People's Abuse

People's abuse
has melted what was golden
and it has gone from the world

Fortune and misfortune
both belong to the land
of dreams

Don't look back
to this world
your old hole in the cellar

From the beginning
the flying birds have left
no footprints on the blue sky

--Muso Soseki (In Stephen Addiss, Stanley Lombardo, and Judith Roitman, Zen Sourcebook, [Indianapolis: Hackett], pp. 182-183.)

Daigu Ryokan

Sixty years have passed for this frail old monk
Living in a shrine hut, far from the world of men.
At the base of the mountain I'm nestled in during the evening rain;
The lamp flickers brightly in front of my old window.

--Daigu Ryokan. (In Stephen Addiss, Stanley Lombardo, and Judith Roitman, Zen Sourcebook [Indianapolis: Hackett, 2008], p. 259.)

Kyong Ho

The moonlight of clear mind
Swallows the whole world;
When mind and light both go out
What is this?

--Death poem of Kyong Ho (1849-1912), Korean Son (Zen) Master.