ENTIRELY ABSENTMINDED

An entire life absentminded,  
no listing, no counting :  
an act of blooming  
is no different from flooding,  
the music for marriage  
is no different from storm,  
listening to music  
is as good as kissing a thorn;  
no stocktaking, everything careless.  

Although sometimes  
the naughty children  
trespass into the garden to play,  
the butterflies have adulterous  
relationship withs the seasons,  
minor like girls,  
the pregnancies of the snails  
get destroyed,  
the heavy steps of the wind  
trample pregnant youth,  
stones weighing tons  
are falling from templetops  
and snakes digest what charm them.  

Everywhere there is life,  
everywhere it is not.  
To be entirely  
absentiminded is life itself.  
There is no record of  
what goes on, what is lost  
and what can be held in a list.  
Tasting the edge of the axe  
I, the woodcutter, have  
split myself into two :  
one the fire, the other the blood.  
  

Translation :
Rabindra K Swain