Thursday, July 5, 2007

FROM ANOTHER SHELF

One of the oldest  and best of the Haikus was written Matsuo Basho in the seventeenth century. The translation closest to the Japanese runs something like;

Old dark pond

        Jumping frog,

            Watersplash.

The poems that work the best describe something that you are familiar with. If you've seen old, sun dappled ponds surrounded with mossy rocks and nodding ferns you can see and "hear" the poem. And I do mean "see and hear" the poem

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

...and I remember being a kid running frantically trying to catch those frogs.  I ruined haikus without realizing it.  :(

Russ

Anonymous said...

Yes, it was usually my own butt that made the "watersplash" as I chased those frogs, too. Nice haiku! --Cin