古池やさかさに浮かふ蝉のから
furuike ya sakasa ni ukabu semi no kara
old pond
floating upside down
a cicada shell
—Shiki
(trans. David LaSpina[1])
All summer long we find the cicada shells everywhere. They are especially common on trees, but they also manage to be blown by the wind and end up everywhere. We can easily imagine going up to an old pond and seeing one floating there too.
Shiki may have famously been very critical of Bashō, but he also recognized that some of Bashō's haiku really were great. Here he is playing off Bashō's most famous haiku.
古池や蛙飛びこむ水の音
furuike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto
an old pond
a frog leaps
plop!
Shiki was well into his shasei ("sketch from life") stage by the time he wrote this haiku, so where as Bashō is telling us a little story, Shiki instead paints us a picture. That may make it a little less powerful, but it's still a nice little picture that we can easily see in our mind's eye.
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| David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. |
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