I sat facing you for hours but you didn’t speak;
Then I finally understood the unspoken meaning.
Removed from their covers, books lay scattered about;
Outside the bamboo screen, rain beats against the plum tree.

Ryokan

from the book Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf: Zen Poems of Ryokan

translated by John Stevens


Read a random quote or see all quotes by Ryokan.

Further quotes from the book Dewdrops on a Lotus Leaf:

• I must go there today
• Right to the core
• This world
• The moonlight comes and goes
• I now surrender
• Everything is in the Heart
• Deep in the mountain