Autumn Kessei 2017 week 1

by tendo zenji

In Reply to Mulberry-Bramble Liu

 In this meager home, guests rare, I often
forget I’m surrounded by turning seasons.

And now falling leaves litter courtyard
emptiness, I grow sadder, realizing it’s

 autumn already. Fresh sunflower thickets
fill north windows. Sweet grains in south

 fields ripen. Though I’m far from happy
today, I know next year may never come.

 Get the kids together, I call to my wife,
it’s the perfect day for a nice long walk.

 —T’ao Ch’ien (365-427),
translated by David Hinton in Mountain Home