Saturday, March 1, 2014

The Flower Thief


One day Ryokan cut a chrysanthemum stalk from someone's garden in Yamada Town. Finding him out, the owner drew a painting of Ryokan as a flower thief and said to him, "Only if you write a poem on this painting will I forgive you."

Ryokan took a brush and wrote:

May the figure of
Monk Ryokan
running away with a flower
this morning
remain for generations to come.

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