Butterflies
Under a
Japanese Moon
Helen
Ruggieri
Copyright
July 2011 Helen Ruggieri
Published
by Kitsune Books at Smashwords
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Front cover art and interior illustrations: Angela Mele
CONTENTS
YESTERDAY
Kami
–A Creation Story
A
Japanese Fable
About
a Snowy Waka
Ode
to the Emperor
The
Emperor’s Anthologies
Beheaded
How
to Make A Bird Sing
The
Corrupt Artist
The
Book of Tea
Green
Tea: A History
Reading
Tea Leaves
Kyoto’s
Pavilion of Gold
Garden
of the Peaceful Dragon
Silver
Pavilion
Dry
Garden at Ryonji
Kanji
Amateratsu
Woman
Laments at the Ice Gate
Tanabata
Ono-no-Komachi
Mayflies
in Kyoto
Lady
Murasaki
Lady
Shonagon
Abutsu
the Nun
Abutsu’s
Long Journey
Okichi—The
Butterfly
The
Emperor’s Daughter
Chiyo-ni
Inari
Shrine
Climbing
Mt. Fuji
Laying
on of Hands
Not
Wanting
River
Sutra
Pilgrimage
Shari
TODAY
Hello
Yokohama
Communications
In
the Moment
Gretel
Goes to the Store
Reading
with the Senses
Hana
Playing
Piano Softly
Earthquake
Dreaming
Crows
At
the Sign for Dog
Money
Changer
Poet
on the Train
Brahms
Alley
On
the Kamagawa River
River
Hawk
Letter
to Cid, Corman, of Course
Silver
Section
Far,
Far Away
Homeless
Crossings
The
Boat Woman’s Song
Koan
of Sorts
Yokohama
Balcony
Yokohama
Eclipse
Hoping
for a View of Mt. Fuji
Farewell
to Yokohama
HAIKU FOR THE YEAR
In
Praise of the Haiku
Basho
and the Student
Translations
YESTERDAY
all was the kami
nothing and dark
he reached out
without hands
and hands
became
stones rose from the mud
of kami
and those stones
were of the spirit
wind across
stones absorbed spirit
or spirit entered the wind
as it inhaled
water came
in the form of rain
trees became trees
and swayed and sang
rivers ran to the sea
full of the kami
voice
and in the exhalation
there was world
A JAPANESE FABLE
The poor fisherman frees
a crane caught in a
net
Tsuru, the crane, becomes
a beautiful woman
She goes home with him
spins silk and sings
songs
She only asks that he
not look at her at night
For a time, they are happy
but he is curious
You know how it goes
He looks, she flies away
But would we close our eyes
and sleep with the
secret
Don’t we all want to learn
who we share our
dreams with
to smooth the silken feathers
from her sleeping
face
When high humidity
hung over the Pavilion
on
the hill above Kyoto
the emperor ate shaved ice
in a silver
bowl, red bean paste
buried inside, green tea leaves
sprinkled
on top.
He looked at the trees
sagging under
summer
fanned himself with his uchinoi
bearing a haiku
by a famous haikai
with a sketch of bamboo
bent by
prevailing winds.
Ice melting in the bottom
of the bowl
glittered
and he thought of winter
the hills white
the wind
mighty
and he called servants
and gave them his wishes.
They took bolts of silk
up the mountain
unwound
them
covering the green
with the shimmer of
white silk.
From below
the
emperor watched
Perhaps he composed
a waka while
the
afternoon paled
and the heat-moon rose
over silvery
hills.
The Silver Pavilion
in Kyoto
was built by an emperor poet
to view moonrise over a
mountain
that full moon
turned
raked and furrowed sand
into waves in a static ocean
he would stand on
his moon viewing
platform composing moonlight waka
the
air thick with the odor of camellias
frogs croak love
songs
in Brocade Mirror Pond
content on their lotus pads
pollen excites the
air
lotus pods form
a maple leaf drifts
what might I have
known
if I had come sooner
if I would stay
Shotetsu offended the compiler
probably one of
the Fujiwara
who edited the book and maybe
purified the
language of the tribe
He was never included
his untamed waka
never
had the chance to charm
a reader by its difference
There were rules, of course,
and the more
closely you obeyed
the better your chances and
of course,
connections
The emperor lent his name
and he presided at
the awards
receiving history’s accolades
for the work of
others
Shotetsu disappeared from
public life—took up
hermiting
in the provinces—living
simply in a small hut
in a grove of bamboo
listening to the
leaves
singing all night every night
in a windy rhythm