A long time ago, an emperor from China wanted to put on display in his palace the most beautiful painting in the world. He asked the best weaver-masters from the country to produce the finest silk fabric and mount it into a frame. Then, after a long and rigorous selection, he chose a young painter to create the masterpiece to be displayed in the throne room.
The painter apologized, saying he wasn’t ready for the assignment. He needed more time to improve his technique. So he left the imperial court and returned to his home. The days turned to weeks. Then the weeks became months. Finally, after a lot of insistence from the emperor, the artist returned to the palace. He took a brush from his toolbox and, without any hesitation, drew two vertical lines on the silk fabric. One was white, the other blue. The painter examined the canvas for a final time, then turned around and declared his work done.
Angered by the artist’s insolence, the emperor threw him into prison. However, some hours later, when passing through the hall after nightfall, he was surprised to find out that the two lines had transformed into a lively pair of dragons. One was white, the other was blue, and they were fighting against each other in the silvery light of the freshly risen full Moon. Amazed by the painter’s skill, the emperor immediately freed him from jail and rewarded him generously for the masterpiece.
This book is not a simple collection of random poems. Instead, it is an invitation to a journey, a journey that attempts to enclose the spirit of a full year into one hundred and eight haiku spread over as many pages.
The poems were divided into four seasons, each with 27 haiku. Each poem was set to occupy a single page, the space surrounding it allowing the reader to contemplate its message for a while before moving to the next. The low number of words in this book can be deceiving, as the high concentration of ideas is more than making up for the text’s brevity.
And so, my dear friend,
the journey awaits for you -
let's step on the road.
