[table][row][/row][row][cell][quote=Mumon Gensen][color=2e2c2c]_[/color]
Life is an ever-rolling wheel
And every day is the right one.
He who recites poems at his death
Adds frost to snow.[/quote]
[quote=Kozan Ichikyo][color=2e2c2c]_[/color]
Empty-handed I entered the world
Barefoot I leave it
My coming, my going—
Two simple happenings
That got entangled.[/quote]
[quote=Shumpo Soki][color=2e2c2c]_[/color]
My sword leans against the sky.
With its polished blade I'll behead
The Buddha and all his saints.
Let the lightning strike where it will.[/quote]
[quote=Aki-no-Bo][color=2e2c2c]_[/color]
No sign
in the cicada's song
that it will soon be gone[/quote]
[quote=Doyu][color=2e2c2c]_[/color]
In all my six and fifty years
No miracles occurred.[/quote][/cell][cell][quote=Onitsura][color=2e2c2c]_[/color]
Give my dream back,
raven! The moon you woke me to
is misted over.[/quote]
[quote=Raizan][color=2e2c2c]_[/color]
Raizan has died
to pay for the mistake
of being born:
for this he blames no one,
and bears no grudge.[/quote]
[quote=Roshu][color=2e2c2c]_[/color]
Time to go . . .
they say the journey is a long one:
change of robes.[/quote]
[quote=Saikaku][color=2e2c2c]_[/color]
I borrow moonlight
for this journey of a
million miles.[/quote]
[quote=Kogetsu Sogan][color=2e2c2c]_[/color]
[i]Katsu!
Katsu!
Katsu!
Katsu![/i][/quote][/cell][/row][/table][color=gray]— from [i]Japanese Death Poems: Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets at the Time of Death,[/i] compiled and translated by Yoel Hoffman[/color]