A Marvelous Night For a Moon Dance

The past couple of days Jundo has been talking about one of my favorite sections of the Genjo Koan...the moon and water as analogy for our practice. While we know that this type of teaching goes far beyond our words to express it, still there are those who have managed to give us the flavour through their writings.

So, I wanted to start a thread in honour of Jundo's (and Dogen's) teaching and ask anyone who would like to to share some of their favorite moon poems. It can be written by someone else or by your very own self. I'll begin with a waka from Zen Master Ryokan:

http://www.4freeimagehost.com/uploads/9dca5996e9fe.jpg

Who would ever known it was there
Beneath the duckweed
That chokes the water by the shore:
The full moon.

Shui tiao ko tou
by Su Shi (Su Dongpo)

The moon -- how old is it?
I hold the cup and ask the clear blue sky
But I don't know, in palaces up there
When is tonight?
If only I could ride the wind and see --
But no, jade towers
So high up, might be too cold
For dancing with my shadow --
How could there, be like here?

Turning in the red chamber
Beneath the carved window
The brightness baffles sleep
But why complain?
The moon is always full at parting
A man knows grief and joy, separation and reunion
The moon, clouds and fair skies, waxing and waning --
An old story, this struggle for perfection!
Here's to long life
This loveliness we share even a thousand miles apart!

A poem that my kids seem to like:

The Cat and the Moon


The cat went here and there
And the moon spun round like a top,
And the nearest kin of the moon,
The creeping cat, looked up.
Black Minnaloushe stared at the moon,
For, wander and wail as he would,
The pure cold light in the sky
Troubled his animal blood.
Minnaloushe runs in the grass
Lifting his delicate feet.
Do you dance, Minnaloushe, do you dance?
When two close kindred meet,
What better than call a dance?
Maybe the moon may learn,
Tired of that courtly fashion,
A new dance turn.
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
From moonlit place to place,
The sacred moon overhead
Has taken a new phase.
Does Minnaloushe know that his pupils
Will pass from change to change,
And that from round to crescent,
From crescent to round they range?
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass
Alone, important and wise,
And lifts to the changing moon
His changing eyes.

-- William Butler Yeats


Bill

I really liked this site: Li Bai drinking alone (with the moon, his shadow, & 32 translators)

And I know of one more translation not on that website - here is Barry Hughart's version from his charming little novel Bridge of Birds:

Among the flowers, with a flask of wine,
I drink all alone - no one to share.
Raising my flask, I welcome the moon,
And my shadow joins us, making a threesome.

As I sing, the moon seems to sway back and forth;
As I dance, my shadow goes flopping about.
As long as we're sober, we'll enjoy one another,
And when we get drunk, we'll go our own ways.

Thus we'll pursue our own avatars,
And we'll all meet again in the River of Staaaaaaars!