Vincent Van Gogh said to his brother Theo “If you study Japanese art, you see a man who is undoubtedly wise, philosophic and intelligent, who spends his time how? In studying the distance between the earth and the moon? No. In studying the policy of Bismarck? No. He studies a single blade of grass. But this blade of grass leads him to draw every plant and then the seasons, the wide aspects of the countryside, then animals, then the human figure. So he passes his life, and life is too short to do the whole.”

The poems in this book reflect that simplicity, and range from Chinese poems of enlightenment and death to Japanese Zen masters past and present. Unfortunately many of them are unremarkable, particularly as compared to other collections, though you might feel differently if it’s among the first you read.

Quotes:
On night:
“It’s in the dark that eyes probe earth and heaven,
In dream that the tormented seek present, past.
Enough! The mountain moon fills the window.
The lonely fall through, the garden rang with cricket song.”
- Betsugen (1294-1364)

On life/death:
“Life: a cloud crossing the peak.
Death: the moon sailing.”
- Mumon (1323-1390)

On simplicity:
“Who prattles of illusion or nirvana?
Forgetting the equal dusts of name and fortune,
Listening to the night rain on the roof of my hut,
I sit at ease, both legs stretched out.”
- Ryokan (1757-1831)

On war:
“Summer grasses,
all that remains
of soldier’s dreams.”
- Basho

On death:
“A sudden chill –
in our room my dead wife’s
comb, underfoot.”
- Buson (1715-1783)

On good and evil in man:
“Where there are humans
you’ll find flies,
and Buddhas.”
- Issa

On death:
“When I go,
guard my tomb well,
grasshopper.”
- Issa

“Among Saga’s
tall weeds,
tombs of fair women.”
- Shiki

Lastly this one, called Shell:
“Nothing, nothing at all
is born,
dies, the shell says again
and again
from the depth of hollowness.
Its body
swept off by tide – so what?
It sleeps
in sand, drying in sunlight,
bathing
in moonlight. Nothing to do
with sea
or anything else. Over
and over
it vanishes with the wave.”
- Shinkichi Takahashi (1901-1987) ( )

It's not all haiku, but it's good poetry with a haiku feel. The book is divided into 4 sections: Chinese poetry, Japanese poetry, Japanese haiku, and poetry by Shinkichi Takahashi. The selection of Japanese haiku is quite good -- I particularly like the small selection of poems by Kikaku, e.g. "Shrine gate / through morning mist -- / a sound of waves", and the selection by Issa contains several of his better poems. Takahashi is a modern Zen poet with a surreal feel to most of what he writes. The Chinese poetry varies, but I found a few particularly inspiring. For instance, this one by Nan-o-Myo, in response to the Zen directive of "not falling into the law of causation, yet not ignoring it": "Not falling, not ignoring-- / A pair of mandarin ducks / Alighting, bobbing, anywhere." To me it's a powerful description of a whole sequence of actions visible simultaneously, without causation, and yet reflecting causation. While the poem is not optimal haiku by my standards (for instance, it can't be understood on its own -- the first line has meaning only with explanation of context), it has many attributes of the finest haiku. ( )