Sesson Yūbai
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Sesson Yūbai (雪村 友梅, 1290 - 14th day of the 1st month, 1348) was a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk of the Rinzai sect. This priest and poet who is considered "the first important poet of the Five Mountains.
![]() |
This article about a religious leader is a stub. You can help out with Wikiquote by expanding it! |
Quotes
[edit]- I do not like praises and honours
Nor did I fear disdain
I just stayed away.
My mind, clear water,
My body bound and tied
For three years in Chang'an.
I sing what I feel in songs
In straight words, undecorated.- From: Bingatshū, as cited in: Katō, Shūichi. A History of Japanese Literature: From the Man'yōshū to Modern Times, 1997. p. 105.
Quotes about Sesson Yūbai
[edit]- When the Japanese Zen priest Mugaku Sogen (1226-1286) was in China and threatened by invading Mongol troops, he composed a fourline poem. Years later another Zen priest, Sesson Yūbai (1290-1347), when he was in prison and threatened with death, took Mugaku's poem and, using each line as the opening verse of a new poem,
- Donald Keene. Anthology of Japanese Literature, from the Earliest Era to the Mid. p. 347