In the ninth month, setting out on the Shikoku pilgrimage.
a crow goes flying — let me cross the water
karasu tonde yuku mizu o watarō
1939–1940 · Matsuyama, Issō-an hermitage
Sōmokutō · The Crow (Karasu)
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Written as he set out in September on his pilgrimage of Shikoku. A crow goes flying. Then let me too cross the water and go. A poem of his last years' departure, as if pushed on by the bird's lightness. The unhesitating "let me cross" suits well the first step of a morning.