Between the Floating Mist: Poems of Ryokan

Just as Ryokan’s life is inseparable from his poetry, the translation’s clarity of diction is inseparable from the sensitive brushwork on each page. A book to be gazed into again and again. -Charlotte Mandel, Small Press

What shall remain as my legacy? The spring flowers the cuckoo in summer, the autumn leaves.

Ryokan (1758-1831) was a poet, master calligrapher, Zen hermit, and is one of the most beloved poets of Japan. Instead of becoming the head of a Zen temple, he preferred the simple and independent life of a hermit. Ryokan’s poetry is simple, direct, and colloquial in expression.