Monday, November 24, 2008

What transcends existence?


Hokoji, a philosophy student, asked the haiku poet Basho, "What transcends existence?" Basho replied:

I will answer that
when you swallow the Xi Jiang
river in one draught



Hokoji suddenly became calm, bowed respectfully, took a cup of tea, and drank it down in a single gulp.

1 comment:

  1. That's a cool translation. It came out in the right number of syllables and everything. Smart fellow that Basho. Old pond, frog jumped in,

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