Synopses & Reviews
For many years Daisaku Ikeda has used poetry to express his innermost observations and sensations. He has given poetic voice to feelings that have emerged from real life, and from the activities of an internationally known champion of peace and education and the leader of a worldwide lay Buddhist movement. With a vigour and simplicity that derive from a style rooted in classical rather than colloquial traditions, his poems celebrate the themes of youth and of progress, and the mysteries of the natural world: whether a wind that "sighs with its melancholy chant to the traveller," or a "great sky with its transcendent beauty and stillness," or a moon that "shines with the light of the silver monarch." These are poignant meditations above all on time, transience and the eternal - rendered visible through a palette of diverse poetic colour, and framed within a universe where all people are called to strive for a better world. Such a world is characterized not by division, but by peace and love. In that sense, these are verses expressive of the author's deepest hopes and sentiments: not merely poems, but keenly felt songs from his heart.
About the Author
Daisaku Ikeda is the President of Soka Gakkai International, a Buddhist network with some 12 million members in over 190 countries throughout the world. An accomplished poet, and the author of over 100 books on Buddhist themes, he received the United Nations Peace Award in 1983.
Table of Contents
Preface
Translator's Note
1. Song of Youth
2. Looking at Nature
Morigasaki Beach
Spring Breezes
Atsuta Village: Thinking of My Master's Childhood Home
Blossoms That Scatter
The Sea in May
Praying to Mount Fuji
Dreams
The Traveller
The Road to Kitano
3. The Heart of the Moon
Moonlight
The Universe
Autumn Wind
Pampas Grass
Night
Mount Fuji and the Poet
Parting on a Clear Day
Time
Theme
4. Songs of the Revolution
A Believer
Springing from the Earth
Weeds
The People
The Truth of Melos
In the River of Revolution
Burning with Ambition
Ambition
Youth
Songs of Building
5. Sounds of Innovation
6. Uncrowned Friends
7. Culture and the Great Earth
8. To Those Who Guard the Dignity of Life