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Everything exists according to its own nature. Our individual perceptions of worth, correctness, beauty, size, and value exist inside our heads, not outside them.
On the leafless branch
Perched a crow:
An autumn eve.
— Basho
Another timeless moment for us to savor and incorporate into our very nerve cells.
All creatures! They squirm about among The flowers in bloom.
— Issa
Flowers bloom calmly. Human beings squirm restlessly. Well-they bloom; we squirm. That's all, Issa says.
A frog!
Quietly and serenely
He gazes at the mountains.
Issa is actually having a little fun at the expense of a frog and of a presumably somewhat overly "mystical" Chinese poet. And at our expense—if we take our sitting quietly too seriously. Squirming is part of our nature, too.
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