What Raven Is This…
これは何の烏だろう…
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In Japan, crow and raven-like birds are gathered beneath the name karasu(烏 or カラス), creatures of intelligence, mystery, and hidden direction. Most sacred among them is the Yatagarasu (八咫烏), the three-legged crow sent to guide Emperor Jimmu through the wilderness toward his destined path. It is not simply a bird, but a symbol of divine guidance, of seeing a way where no way appears, and of Nature leading “us” when “we” can no longer see clearly for ourselves.
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In much of the West, the raven often arrives as an omen of death, darkness, or endings. In Japan, the sacred crow may arrive for another reason: not to announce that the road is over, but to reveal where the road continues. One brings news from the shadows. The other becomes a guide through them.
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As I left my temporary accommodation in Hakone, I saw this majestic bird. I wondered about the local lore around them and found what you have read above. What was erstwhile an ominous tale is also a hopeful one. The humans that “we” are named to be create the name, the story, and the expectation. All the while, there sits the Raven Evermore.
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To see beyond shadows and light,
To abide in what is,
As opposed to what might,
Of these things
“We” think
Or are apt to believe,
Knowing unknowingly,
We deceive
Our sense
Of what is there to be.
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Black bird watching from the tree,
Are you a sign to warn me,
Or do you come to show the way?
There, silent, it didn’t say.
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Brother Raven, Brother Tree,
Named by “others,”
Named as “we,”
Given the name
And claim to fame,
As “we” read to see
A separate sense of why,
And remain perplexed,
Forgetting context
Is the name we name for All.
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As I heard the black bird’s call,
I felt it come from all:
The road, the tree,
The mountain-me,
And the interpreted lore,
And felt I was before,
And then,
A Raven on a tree,
Looking at the likes of me.
🐦⬛
It may be
That the Raven also sees
The All as you and me.
No message and no receiver
Beyond the One it delivers
To the Raven-me.
