Tag Archives: haiku

Kikaku, “Above the boat”

“Above the boat” (from A Book of Luminous Things, ed. Czeslaw Milosz) Kikaku (trans. Lucien Stryk & Takashi Ikemoto) Above the boat, bellies of wild geese. Comment: Milosz: “In Japanese haiku there are often flashes, or glimpses, and things appear like lightning, or as if in the light of a flare: epiphanies of a landscape.” …

August 18, 2012 – 2:46 am | By ashok | Posted in poetry | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Exile

Dexterous turn of phrase – silver moonlight, summer’s lake, illuminating nothing.

July 6, 2012 – 3:52 am | By ashok | Posted in writing | Tagged | Comments (0)

Sunday

Air – thick with wet heat – surprised by a willingness to move upon land.

June 21, 2012 – 3:54 am | By ashok | Posted in writing | Tagged | Comments (0)

Basho, “Another year gone”

Another year gone (trans. Robert Hass) Matsuo Basho Another year gone – hat in my hand, sandals on my feet. Comment: This continues the theme of the wanderer from “Many nights on the road.” At first glance, it does not seem terribly different. The wanderer is exhausted and may still be walking. A further implication: …

June 15, 2012 – 3:13 am | By ashok | Posted in poetry | Tagged , | Comments (1)

Basho, “Many nights on the road”

Many nights on the road (trans. Robert Hass) Matsuo Basho Many nights on the road and not dead yet – the end of autumn. Comment: Hass speaks of Basho’s “profound loneliness and sense of suffering.” The two, in this poem, are united in the figure of the wanderer. Goethe’s second Wanderers Nachtlied engages a similar …

June 12, 2012 – 2:05 pm | By ashok | Posted in poetry | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Yosa Buson’s “A small shop opening” and a rant against “philosophy of X” subfields

A small shop opening (tr. Hass & Blyth) Yosa Buson The short night – on the outskirts of the village a small shop opening. Comment: 1. It seems fantastic to say philosophy is the discovery of wonder. What an arrogant, nonsensical claim! No field or mode of inquiry has a claim on wonder; all men …

May 28, 2012 – 4:49 am | By ashok | Posted in philosophy, poetry | Tagged | Comments (0)

Yosa Buson, “The mad girl”

The mad girl (tr. Robert Hass) Yosa Buson The mad girl in the boat at midday; spring currents. Comment: At first: even the insane can appreciate a fine spring day. But that is literally a cruel joke; the poem commences deconstruction. Spring should be a time of rebirth, renewal. One who most needs change should …

May 25, 2012 – 1:48 am | By ashok | Posted in poetry | Tagged | Comments (1)

Yosa Buson, “Early summer rain”

Early summer rain (tr. Robert Hass) Yosa Buson Early summer rain – houses facing the river, two of them. Comment: Not going to limit “them” to “two lone houses,” though Hass informs us the last line has been translated that way. Another comment of his, one I feel more relevant: “The houses are seen at …

May 20, 2012 – 3:35 am | By ashok | Posted in poetry | Tagged | Comments (0)

Summer

Ripples – murky pond – fanning out against the dark the color of chalk

May 13, 2012 – 3:49 pm | By ashok | Posted in writing | Tagged | Comments (0)

Kobayashi Issa, “Don’t worry, spiders”

Happy Mother’s Day Don’t worry, spiders Kobayashi Issa (tr. Robert Hass, from The Essential Haiku) Don’t worry, spiders, I keep house casually. Comment: 1. I spared many a spider growing up. Mom said spiders killed other pesky insects and shouldn’t be smashed promptly. They could be helpers for keeping the house clean, if it weren’t …

May 12, 2012 – 3:42 am | By ashok | Posted in poetry | Tagged , | Comments (3)