Japan, the Beautiful and Myself

Japan, the Beautiful and Myself

“In the spring, cherry blossoms, in the summer the cuckoo.
In autumn the moon, and in winter the snow, clear, cold.”“The winter moon comes from the clouds to keep me company.

The wind is piercing, the snow is cold.”The first of these poems is by the priest Dogen (1200-1253) and bears the title “Innate Spirit”. The second is by the priest Myoe (1173-1232). When I am asked for specimens of calligraphy, it is these poems that I often choose.

The second poem bears an unusually detailed account of its origins, such as to be an explanation of the heart of its meaning: “On the night of the twelfth day of the twelfth month of the year 1224, the moon was behind clouds. I sat in Zen meditation in the Kakyu Hall. When the hour of the midnight vigil came, I ceased meditation and descended from the hall on the peak to the lower quarters, and as I did so the moon came from the clouds and set the snow to glowing. The moon was my companion, and not even the wolf howling in the valley brought fear. When, presently, I came out of the lower quarters again, the moon was again behind clouds. As the bell was signalling the late-night vigil, I made my way once more to the peak, and the moon saw me on the way. I entered the meditation hall, and the moon, chasing the clouds, was about to sink behind the peak beyond, and it seemed to me that it was keeping me secret company.”

There follows the poem I have quoted, and with the explanation that it was composed as Myoe entered the meditation hall after seeing the moon behind the mountain, there comes yet another poem:

“I shall go behind the mountain. Go there too, O moon.

Night after night we shall keep each other company.”Here is the setting for another poem, after Myoe had spent the rest of the night in the meditation hall, or perhaps gone there again before dawn:

“Opening my eyes from my meditations, I saw the moon in the dawn, lighting the window. In a dark place myself, I felt as if my own heart were glowing with light which seemed to be that of the moon:

‘My heart shines, a pure expanse of light;

And no doubt the moon will think the light its own.’ ”

Because of such a spontaneous and innocent stringing together of mere ejaculations as the following, Myoe has been called the poet of the moon:

“Bright, bright, and bright, bright, bright, and bright, bright.

Bright and bright, bright, and bright, bright moon.”

川端康成　「美しい日本の私」サイデンステッカー訳

軍国から平和の国へ、終戦からの復興を考えるとき、オリンピックとノーベル文学賞の受賞は、はずすことのできない出来事でした。日本の美と私という、記念講演も、軍事ではなく、文学で世界から認められる。日本人は、国際社会への復帰を実感した。ただGNPでアメリカに次ぐ国になるまで、経済的には達成されていなかった。豊かな国、国民皆保険、年金保険の確立がその成果です。その先にある軍事国家の回復は、美しい国になることではなく、軍事をもって、失った国際社会での地位の回復を図るという、苦境の回復でしかありません。