Flowers of Zen sung by Eleanor Meynell with Christopher Gould, piano (excerpt)
Genre: Vocal
Mood: Dramatic
Forces: Female voice, Piano
Length: 3 Minutes
This piece sets flower haiku by the Japanese poet, Bashō, beautifully translated by Lucien Stryk.
Flowers of Zen appears on the album Sunset Over the Weald, available here, sung by Eleanor Meynell (soprano) with Christopher Gould (piano).
“Dunkin Wedd is quite masterly in the way he slowly and gently sets this text, creating a delicate, quite wondrous feel which is perfectly suited to these poems.” – The Classical Reviewer
Haiku poems of Bashō
Translated by Lucien Stryk
Come see
real flowers
of this painful world
Violets -
how precious on
a mountain path
Peony –
the bee can’t bear
to part
Orchid - breathing
incense into
butterfly’s wings
Travel-weary,
I seek lodging –
ah, wistaria
Rain-washed
camellia - as it
falls, showers
Irises blooming
from my feet -
sandals laced in blue
Morning-glory -
it, too,
turns from me
However close I look,
not a speck on
white chrysanthemum
Town merchants,
who will buy this hat
lacquered with snow?
© Lucian Stryk, 1985 –
by kind permission of Helen Stryk
Flowers of Zen appears on the album Sunset Over the Weald, available here, sung by Eleanor Meynell (soprano) with Christopher Gould (piano).