Colin's Poetry Collection

 Colin Short

Professor Mizenko

JPN Lit & Comp

15 May, 2025

Poems Relating to the Difficulties of Buddhism

I started creating this collection by going through my responses throughout the semester and choosing the poems I picked as standouts from each reading. Initially, I was planning to continue this and order my poems in chronological order. However, as I was going through each poem and writing my analysis of each one, I noticed the common theme of Buddhist teachings and the poets either struggling with them or going against them directly. We talked a lot about Buddhism and its push for not having attachments and living in the current moment this semester, but many of the poems we read this semester feature poets discussing past lovers, longing for old homes, regrets, and an overall moment to live in the current moment. I decided I wanted to try to put a collection of poems together that demonstrated this idea of a person struggling with Buddhist tenets. Part of the reason I decided this is because I really struggle to grasp the finer points of Buddhism. So, a collection of poems written by people who would have grown up within a culture that it was a part of makes me more sure that it is alright to be confused about Buddhism, but to still try to think more deeply about what it is trying to say. I hope that someone who reads through this collection will come to see that it can be hard to live in the moment, but that it can be a rich experience if they try.

Ki no Tsurayuki

Poem 176

The hue is rich

            And the perfume as fragrant

                        As the days gone by,

but how I long for a glimpse

            of the one who planted the tree.

This poem is labeled as a lament. Tsurayuki describes something very human as he is reminded of a person by seeing something the person left behind. The idea that he is looking at this beautiful tree, either a Sakura or a plum tree, but all he is thinking about is how he would rather be with the person who planted it. This poem also demonstrates how people naturally struggled with Buddhism. The idea that things are constantly changing, and humans should strive to be above attachments. Despite this, the poet is unable to live in the moment and experience the beauty of the tree. They are stuck in the past. It is so human and beautiful at the same time.

Izumi Shikibu

Poem 208

Of no use at all-

These cherry blossoms blooming

            around my house.

For it is the tree’s owner

            people really come to see.

This poem once again focuses on the importance of cherry blossoms and how they are the center of social gatherings. It also focuses on how it wasn’t really the trees that brought people around, but instead the people who planted the trees. This connects directly with the first poem in the collection, as the person uses the tree to reflect a person they have lost. Izumi also focuses on how important connections were in society. This poem reads as a cry of regret that, despite the pretty trees around the speaker, people don’t come to see them. The poem has a sad undertone because of this. This continues the importance of human connections and the imperfection of the authors and humans as a whole, as they are unable to completely remove themselves from connections.

Fujiwara no Teika

Poem 386

“Think of the past!”-

so the moonlight seems to say,

itself a remnant

            of autumns long since gone,

that I could never know.

This poem personifies the moon as something that both reminds the poet of their own past and also reminds the poet of how old the world is. The moonlight itself may remind the poet of an experience they had one night. This idea of thinking about the past connects with the struggle of humans living in the present. However, the moonlight also reminds them that there were things that happened long before them, and also that things will happen long after them. The moon can often represent Enlightenment, so this could be interpreted as the moon trying to get the poet to think about how much the world changes around them instead of focusing on a singular point in the past.

Ariwara no Narihira

Poem 118

Upon the pathway,

I have long heard others say,

Man sets forth at last –

yet I had not thought to go

            so very soon as today.

This poem is classified as a lamentation and was written while Ariwara no Narihira was sick. This poem shows Narihira as he grapples with what appears to be his impending death. He even talks about how people often talk of death and how every man (person) dies and disappears at some point. This idea continues a central theme of Buddhism, as everything dies and the world will continue on. However, once again, the poet is scared of this aspect of Buddhism and writes a poem to help explain their feelings on it. Even if Narihira knows he will die, he still feels connected to the world and doesn’t feel ready for such a permanent change.

Tales of Ise (No named author)

Section 9: Poem on Mount Fuji Pages 42-43

            Fuji is a peak

indifferent to season.

            What month does it think this,

that snowflakes should be falling

to spot its slopes like deerskin?

This poem focuses on the natural beauty of Mt. Fuji and its steadfastness no matter what happens around it. This poem also comes in a section dedicated to travel, so the focus is on one of the most iconic natural landmarks within Japan makes sense. Mt. Fuji’s refusal to change at first seems to directly go against the idea of acceptance of change within Buddhism however, it does still connect to common images of Buddhism. Mt. Fuji just is. Part of Buddhism promotes acceptance and also advises against humans applying their own preconceived notions to the world. Mt. Fuji can be used as a symbol of acceptance as it towers over Japan, above all the worries about the Earthly world humans end up concerned with. Instead of representing a human struggling with their connections, it presents a symbol of something that has risen above them.

Ariwara no Narihira

Poem 119

Must the moon vanish

            in such great haste, leaving us

                        still unsatisfied?

Retreat, O rim of the hills,

and refuse to let it set.

This poem describes how the moon is vanishing before Narihira’s eyes. He begs for the world to change to allow the moon to stay in sight. This poem demonstrates how people will fight against change and the wish to stay in a happy moment, instead of being ready to experience the next thing. Asking for the hills themselves to move also contributes to the feeling of a person being willing to do anything to keep things from changing. Another way to interpret this poem is that the moon represents Enlightenment, and Narihira wanted to convey that he felt he was close to Enlightenment, but that he wasn’t able to completely grasp it. This idea of wanting to keep experiencing the same thing that brought a person close to Enlightenment, but this push to stay within a past moment, is what is keeping a person away from achieving it is ironic and further represents the struggles humans face as they try to follow Buddhist teachings.

 

 

Kokinshu Sequence from Spring 2

Poet- Nara Emperor Heizei

Poem 184

Even at Nara-

The ancient royal city

            now a former home-

the flowers have come into bloom

            in the colors of the past

This poem once again focuses on flowers blossoming and their cyclical nature. These flowers are once again used to illustrate how the world is always moving and changing, no matter what humans do. The poet uses the image of Nara, a former capital of Japan, to illustrate it. Nara would have been the center of culture at one time, but now it is described simply as a former home, giving it the image of being empty. However, the flowers still bloom there whether people are there to see them are not. However, this poem also has a nostalgic undertone with the line “in the colors of the past.” This line helps imply that witnessing these flowers blossoming reminds the poet of the past. This helps demonstrate how, despite the world’s constant changing and Buddhism’s appeal for people to live in the moment, people struggle with the idea and even apply their understanding and memory of the world to the flowers themselves. This is similar to the first poem in the collection, as the poet is reminded of the person who planted the tree, instead of being in the moment. These poems continue to represent the struggle of humans to deal with their attachments.

Monk Saigyo

Poem 301

After the leaves fall

            in the villiage at the foot

                        of Ougura Peak,

one can see through the branches

            the moon shining in the clear.

This poem is a winter poem, unlike the previous poems in the collection focus on more spring imagery. The poem follows closely with the idea of accepting how things change. Instead of lamenting the loss of leaves, Saigyo describes how the moon suddenly becomes visible. It is a glass-half-full approach to something that can often be depicted as said as the beautiful leaves from autumn fall to the ground. Beyond that, winter is often used to represent death within Japanese literature, and the moon can be a symbol of Enlightenment. So this poem can also be interpreted as someone approaches their death, the way becomes clear, and they gain a better understanding of Enlightenment. This poem aligns well with Buddhist teachings and helps depict a way for people to think about their lives. Instead of clinging to things that will always change, they should instead strive to find beauty and meaning in the things around them in the present.

 

This collection ends with what appears to be a person achieving Enlightenment, or at least closer to Enlightenment than the poets before them. I hope that as a person reads through the collection, they will think back on their own pasts and reflect on themselves today, so they can try to better live in the moment. I hope it will also help people have a better understanding of Buddhism after they have read through everything. All of the poems I selected helped properly drive my main idea forward, and I hope that as people read through them, they see the