Here’s the latest meditation from Hozouji:
It might be a little difficult to recognize because of the stylized calligraphy, but the “精進” here is the same shoujin we see in 精進料理; traditional Zen vegetarian cooking. Let’s take another look in kanji and romaji.
日々精進（努力）______ Hibi shoujin (doryoku)
未来と________________Mirai to
自分は________________Jibun ha
直せる________________Naoseru
精進 means “devotion”, devotion of one’s body and mind to living a pure life, and just to help us out, the writer has added 努力 or “endeavor” to clarify the meaning. In Buddhism this devotion is a process of self-discovery, of finding one’s true self and this seems to tie in with the 直せる at the end of the meditation. The idea is that you can “fix” yourself, or straighten yourself up. The key-word however, is right at the beginning: 日々 － “everyday”. If you want to break your bad habits and get some good ones, if you want to become a more fully-rounded person, there is no quick fix, you have to work at it and work at it every day. Now how to put that concisely? Here goes…
Day by day devote yourself to your endeavors
And one day
Your self
Can be made whole
As always anyone is free to make suggestions if they have a better take on this. I quite like mine though. 
Here’s some Talvin Singh:
Hi Mike,
Your traslation is great.
I especially like the first line.
If you read it aloud, it sounds beautiful.
It also carries the original message well.
Good job. Is traslationg zen poems your hobby?
Thanks Masaya.
I wouldn’t say it’s a hobby exactly. But I like the messages they put up at Hozouji. They have a nice life-affirming common sense quality about them that appeals to me. So I set myself the task of translating them this year. Also, they are short so it’s kind of easy.
Mike