「徐行踏断流水声」

徐に行いて踏断す流水の声

おもむろにゆいてとうだんすりゅうすいのこえ

ゆったりと流れる川のほとりを静かに歩いて行くと、やがて自分が川と一緒に流れていく、対岸の山々も一緒に動いて行く。川がわれか、我が景色か、川と流れながら川もなくなり、山と行きながら山もなくなり、天地と我と一枚に溶けあって、山もなければ川もない我もない、そういう心境が開けてきます。

Omomuro ni yuite tōdansu ryūsui no koe
Walking beside the stream, one’s steps cease; the sound of flowing water.

If you take a relaxed walk beside a running stream, after a while you seem to flow as one with the stream. The hills on the opposite side of the bank also seem to move as one with you. Is the flow of the river and the flow of the self one? Is the self at one with the surrounds? As the self flows with the stream, the stream dissolves. And as one walks in harmony with the changing scenery of the mountains, the mountains dissolve. The self melts into the surrounds and the concepts of the mountains, stream and the self all fade away. This verse points to this ideal mindstate.