WEBVTT

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These poems are
among the ones I've

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written since all
the first ones,

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also in Ryoko-in
and not in any book.

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This one was written for
the mother of the place, who

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was called Okusan.

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It's a priest's mother.

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You see, in staying
there, whatever I did,

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I had to write it.

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I didn't have to write a poem.

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But whatever I felt, they waited
to see, would I write a poem.

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If I visited another
temple, I would

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write a poem that became
part of that temple.

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Sometimes-- one
time, as I remember,

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I went to a mountain temple.

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A beautiful little place.

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And I was just enjoying
it and enjoying.

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Suddenly, they turned to me
and said, where is the poem?

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So I had to write
a poem right away.

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And this was a ceremony that
Kobori-san's mother invited me

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to suddenly.

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And she didn't speak English.

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She suddenly had the
thought of inviting me

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to her ceremony, which
was tea of her class

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under the plum trees in
bloom and in the garden,

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in the vegetable garden, all the
things laid out on the ground.

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And her class in
traditional tea ceremony,

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which she gave free to factory
workers and people dressed

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in their beautiful kimonos, no
one spoke a word of English.

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That happened to me
constantly there.

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I was very touched.

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So I wrote this poem to give
to her that evening for dinner

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and had the experience that
came again and again and again,

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that without a word of a
language known to either of us,

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it exactly fitted.

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This is what the
ceremony was about.

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I wonder why you
learned to talk.

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"Our mother teaches
grace with tea,

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pours ancient skies
into our cups.

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We drink, students,
in her garden.

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New blossoms are gnarled,
plum tree branches

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speak in the wind of
love's safe routes.

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Spring, returning
daughter, welcome."

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