No-Win Situations

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An Account of my Hut, choka, Hojoki, Kamono

(Wikipedia:  Kamo no Chomei by Kikuchi Yosai)

 

Poem based on the above’s An Account of My Hut:

 

If you live next door

to the wealthy, you will be

mostly uneasy,

for you will have to tone down

your own highs and lows,

or become a sycophant,

in the knowledge that

you are not even rated.

If you live in town,

there are disadvantages

and, in the country,

public transport is lacking.

You can’t win as thieves like both

isolation and big crowds.

Priorities

Tags

choka, Kamono

Second choka inspired by Kamono’s ‘An Account of My Hut’:

 

Winds will sweep away

Man’s attempts at division

and segregation.

Disaster exceptional?

Don’t believe it’s so.

People interpret events;

seek correlations.

Houses float downriver.

The poor don’t philosophise:

they don’t have the time

and they value what’s useful,

rather than ephemera.