Toki-no-Ge (Satori Poem) By Muso Soseki for National Poetry Month

Toki-no-Ge (Satori Poem) By Muso Soseki
English version by W. S. Merwin



Year after year
                  I dug in the earth 
                                 looking for the blue of heaven
only to feel 
                  the pile of dirt 
                                 choking me
until once in the dead of night 
                  I tripped on a broken brick 
                                 and kicked it into the air
and saw that without a thought 
                  I had smashed the bones 
                                 of the empty sky