Michel Laraさんのイラストまとめ

The Koi and the White Lotus

Once two koi were swimming upstream to reach a destination and yet in trying to overcome the adverse stream, they swam past the still radiance of the white lotus.

In this morning glories
frog shelters in green-
rainstorm nears

The Legend Ono no Michikaze (Tōfū) and the Frog earned him a depiction in Hanafuda ("flower cards") playing cards where he was shown with a willow & a frog.

Hanafuda November willow card with Ono no Michikaze and a frog.

The Zen of Frogs

One spring morning, two frogs in a pond were arguing about who embody true frogness.

Oldest frog said: "sit still, eyes closed, no croak, breathe in, then frog & pond will be one."

Suddenly, younger frog croak once & dived into the pond's cool waters.

Ukai or "cormorant fishing" has being used by Japanese fishermen on Nagara River since 7th c.

A collar is placed around cormorant's throat preventing swallowing small fish it catches as fish are lured by torch fire. Later, bird is tugged by rope regurgitating fish into baskets

The mountain
is pathless
until tread on it

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

The present contains its own passing as the glory of mortal works turned into ruins now sustained by memories of light and shadow.

'Monk Meditating near a Ruin by Moonlight' by Frederik Marinus Kruseman, 1862

"The coward calls himself cautious; the miser, frugal"

Timidus vocat se cautum, avarus parcum

–Publilius Syrus, sententiae 487

"Even false becomes true when one’s master says so."

Falsum etiam est verum quod constituit superior.

-Publilius Syrus, Sententiae 228

These two Homeric epithets for Ares: Areiphatos & Areiktamenos mean respectively "killed by Ares" & "killed in War", i.e. Ares ultimately embodies every death in war.