Hui-neng's Pond

by Muso Soseki

English version by W. S. Merwin
Original Language Japanese

The Dharma spring of the Sixth Patriarch
     has never run dry
          it is flowing even now
a single drop
     has fallen and spread
          far and deep
Don't be caught
     by the decorations at the edge
          and the wall around it
In the dead of night
     the moonlight strikes
          the middle of the pond

-- from Sun at Midnight: Muso Soseki - Poems and Sermons, Translated by W. S. Merwin / Translated by Soiku Shigematsu

<<Previous Poem | More Poems by Muso Soseki | Next Poem >>


View All Poems by Muso Soseki



Recommended Books: Muso Soseki

Sun at Midnight: Muso Soseki - Poems and Sermons East Window: Poems from Asia Roaring Stream: A New Zen Reader



Hui-neng's Pond