(Poems by Cid Corman (1924-2004

[lightflake]

(Poems by Cid Corman (1924-2004

---
I picked a
leaf up

it weighed
my vision

I knelt and
placed it

almost
where it was

---

Live with the living

Die with the dying

.And there you are: here

---

EXISTENCE


All you have

and all you

have to give

---

What were you

?expecting


What more is

?there than this

---

NOW

NOW


How much

closer


can you

?get yet

---

The Offerings

Too many things on the altar.
A petal would do.
Or the ant that stops for a moment at it.

---

rain stops
night knows when
to listen

what falls
glistens now
in the ear

---

How can I resist
life? It glories even as
it aches within me.

---

If these words
—dont remember you
.forget them

---

Do you realize
how little time you have left
?to realize this

---

And so once more we
find ourselves upon the bridge
.getting us nowhere

---

The leaf at last gets
the drift of wind and so
.settles for the ground

---

 

[lightflake]

---

It isnt for want
of something to say
something to tell you

something you should know
but to detain you
keep you from going

feeling myself here
as long as you are
as long as you are

---

!HELLO
How do you do? How
?do you? How-do-you-do-you
.You're asking too much

How to learn to be
ignorant? Any scholar
.provides an example

I wear the mask of
myself and very nearly
.get away with it

In the shadow of
the mountain the shadow of
.any bird is lost

Only a bunch of
swallows over and over
.the darkening stream

There is no end and
never was a beginning - so
.here we are - amidst

- We are going to
- there is no future in it
.is is the presence tence

You are here - just as
- I had imagined
.imagining me

Your shadow
on the page
.the poem

Rain-drops. Each
makes a point
.of silence

 

[lightflake]

"באנגלית זה נשמע יותר טוב" / תרגום

המנחות

יותר מדי דברים על המזבח.
עלה כותרת היה מספיק.
או הנמלה שעוצרת לרגע עליו.

 

[lightflake]

*

גשם פוסק
לילה יודע מתי
להקשיב

מה שנופל
מנצנץ עכשיו
באוזן

 

[lightflake]

*

אם מילים אלה
אינן זוכרות אותך -
שכח אותן.

 

[lightflake]

*

האם אתה מבין
כמה מעט זמן נשאר לך
כדי להבין את זה?

 

[lightflake]

*

איך ללמוד להיות
בור? כל מלומד
מספק דוגמה.

 

[lightflake]

*

אני לובש את המסכה של
עצמי וכמעט
מתחמק מזה.

 

[lightflake]

*

בצל
ההר הצל של
כל ציפור הולך לאיבוד.

 

[lightflake]

*

רק חבורה של
סנוניות שוב ושוב מעל
הנחל המחשיך.

 

[lightflake]

*

אין סוף ו
מעולם לא הייתה התחלה - כך
הנה אנחנו - באמצע.

 

[lightflake]

*

אתה נמצא כאן - בדיוק כמו
שדמיינתי -
מדמיין אותי.

הצל שלך
על הדף
השיר.

טיפות גשם. כל אחת
עושה נקודה
של שקט.

 

[lightflake]

more

Has it ever
occurred to you
-you're what is oc
?curring to you
---

למי שאהב כאן יש עוד הרבה

http://www.longhousepoetry.com/cormananthology.html#anchor145865


Everything
helps decipher
what nothing means

---

Touched by weeds
passing along
a narrow
sidewalk

 

[lightflake]

Life is poetry

and poetry is life — O
!awaken — people

---

If there were
— an answer
this would be
the answer.

---

When a tiger looks
at you — you know beyond doubt
you are being seen

---

In the mirror for
a moment it almost all
seems just possible

---

Can any moment
?ever be equal to this
Wind shaking the pane

---

Life only
means to live.
What else do

you ask of
a flower
?but flower

 

[lightflake]

אני די בטוח שהוא גלגול של איזה מורה זן יפני

הוא אגב עבר ליפן התחתן עם יפנית וחי שם עד מותו, הוא הספיק לתרגם לא מעט סיפורים ושירי הייקו בעיקר של באשו ומורי זן אחרים, ונחשב לאחד המתרגמים המדויקים ביותר לאנגלית של שירי הייקו.

And if Li Po had
got the moon in his mitts what
?would he have done with it

---

— Moon under the rain
everywhere anywhere
a sort of glimmer

( 17th c/Japan)


Fire under the ash
and written on the wall the
shadow of a friend

Basho—

 

[lightflake]

If we had only

listened to the silence we
might have learned nothing

---

I wouldve
sworn there was

nothing but
here you are

---

Life without
a question

is the only
answer