How one takes the following New Year's haiku depends upon one's disposition. I choose to take it in good humor, with a touch of wistfulness.
I intended
Never to grow old, --
But the temple bell sounds!
Jokun (translated by R. H. Blyth), in R. H. Blyth, Haiku, Volume 4: Autumn-Winter (Hokuseido Press 1952), page 202.
At the turning of the New Year in Japan, the bells of the Buddhist temples are rung 108 times: once for each of the 108 desires that are the cause of our life of suffering. The purpose of the ringing is to bid farewell to those desires.
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As I have noted here in the past, I am not one to draw up New Year's resolutions. But, if I were of a mind to do so, I would choose this each year:
. . . we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.
Philip Larkin, "The Mower,"Collected Poems (Faber and Faber 1988).
A lifetime's work. Never finished.
Best wishes for the New Year, dear readers.
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I intended
Never to grow old, --
But the temple bell sounds!
Jokun (translated by R. H. Blyth), in R. H. Blyth, Haiku, Volume 4: Autumn-Winter (Hokuseido Press 1952), page 202.
At the turning of the New Year in Japan, the bells of the Buddhist temples are rung 108 times: once for each of the 108 desires that are the cause of our life of suffering. The purpose of the ringing is to bid farewell to those desires.
Josephine Haswell Miller (1890-1975), "The House on the Canal"
As I have noted here in the past, I am not one to draw up New Year's resolutions. But, if I were of a mind to do so, I would choose this each year:
. . . we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.
Philip Larkin, "The Mower,"Collected Poems (Faber and Faber 1988).
A lifetime's work. Never finished.
Best wishes for the New Year, dear readers.
Dudley Holland, "Winter Morning" (1945)
