Reflections in Miniature: One Hundred Three

1. Even when piercing an ancient dark well,
the young inhabitant there—
a frog splashing water all around—
suddenly leaps up!

2. My path draped in shadows,
your chariot filled with light;
because my destination lies...
a little farther still.

3. Once, seeing storm clouds in the sky
I would worry about father.
Not anymore;
father is ill, stays home all the time.

4. A beggar's bed...
where is it hard? It's not even dirty!
If it were, how could
the insects laugh there so comfortably!?

5. Frogs, come out!
Roam freely through the kingdom of darkness
keeping your eyes on the stars.

6. No one misunderstands you.
No one has time to understand you!
Misunderstanding only comes
when someone tries to understand you.

7. Above the mountain
the full moon keeps laughing now...
looking at the flower thieves.

8. Don't think I'm calling
because I'm alone at home.
I'm calling just to see
the butterflies fluttering among my garden flowers.

9. Dear grasshopper!
After my death,
will you dance just like this
on my grave?

10. A little child, lost,
on dark paths
keeps stumbling again and again
trying to catch fireflies...

11. Even after the snake has gone,
people won't go near
the innocent dewdrops
gathered on those grass tips.

12. Thinking to kill him,
raising the knife in my hand...
thinking something, I threw it far away
and ended up killing myself instead.

13. Grasshopper, be careful as you leap!
May this sleep of pearls
trapped in light's snare, disguised as dew...
never be broken, not even by mistake!

14. When skin wrinkles,
when this form grows pale as the body breaks,
will such sparkling youth still bloom
in sunlight, in camera lenses?

15. Small small sentences.
A little little hope.
Gentle gentle voice.
Long long relief.

16. When the pond laughs
becoming a mirror for the stars,
night grows deeper, and
dimples seem to form on the pond's cheeks!

17. In that twilight
when you went far away,
ever since then...in every twilight
sorrow descends along the sky's body.

18. Rise! Light has come!
Come, let's go down to the road...
before darkness falls,
let's touch the light!

19. The batsman swooshed
his bat...and split
the stubborn wind right through!
The stumps flew too...in the ball's wounded pride.

20. Now my solitude...
leans against some fallen stars
and simply goes on living.