Saying nothing
today’s waraji
donned

Into the evening sky streaks a narrow road

The moon bright
I go home

Morning sparrows,
their voices say the snow’s
arrived in the distant mountains

Your back in winter shower
you go I see

My back view as I go,
wetted with the winter rain?

Holding out its branches
a winter tree

No more houses to beg at
above the mountain clouds

Or I stop begging
and am looking at the mountain

Even my hat has started to leak I see

This frosty night’s bed must be somewhere


"Grass and Tree Cairn", by Taneda Santôka. Translation by Hiroaki Sato; Winchester, Va.: Red Moon Press, 2002.