I. To understand the pathless path/
In any season
To keep warm, to keep cool
Move along quickly.
Destination-blind
Improvise and find a way
All who pause, perish.
No predecessors;
It is always the first snow.
Perhaps the crane knows.
II. To understand the gate/
If K can see it
And do nothing, certainly
I am in danger.
Original sin
Ask and receive non-answers
Go and all is clear.
III. To understand the gatekeeper/
Phantasmagoric,
They are silent but offend;
How should I move on?
Procrustean beds
Are not for human repose.
Understand water.
IV. To understand gatelessness/
For all the forest
There are seldom bears or wolves
But often darkness.
Search and see it;
If only you had found it.
Flowers’ petals fall.
V. To understand passage/
To shoulder burdens
And see ahead another gate,
But not its keeper.