やがて死ぬけしきは見えず蝉の声
yagate shinu keshiki wa miezu semi no koe
soon to die
yet no sign of it
in the cicada's cry
—Basho
(Tr. David LaSpina)
("Cicada" by Omoda Seiju)
Most translators reverse the order of this one, giving us something like:
in the cicada's cry
is no sign
it will soon die
I present them both and you can choose the one you like best. I favor keeping the images in the same order as the original poet, but there are good arguments for reversing them.
In all his haiku books, Robin Gill gives us multiple translations for each poem. His stated reasoning is that even the best translation can rarely capture the Japanese, so it is better to hint at the original by looking at several different ways of translating it. It is a unique approach.
Basho wrote a headnote for this one: "The fleeting transience of life". After years living underground, the cicada dig themselves out, shed their skin, and start singing. Then within a few days they mate and die. When we watch the cicada and their short life, we are reminded of how fast it goes—how fleeting it is.
Yet, the cicada sing for the moment without a care of what is to come, without any sign that their end is near. Living for today—living in the moment—is at the heart of Buddhist practice, and Basho would have been well familiar with it.
❦
| Don't miss other great haiku in the Haiku of Japan series! |
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