Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
We have just to go a few days on the trail with Basho and than we will close this wonderful CDHK-month. I have enjoyed this month a lot and I hope you all did enjoy it too. Today our haiku by Basho is titled from all directions and that brought a few things in mind.
First our Carpe Diem Haiku Kai Family has members from all directions and that makes me happy. Second this haiku title brought another idea in mind. A more sad idea. From all directions, everywere on Earth there are issues to resolve not at least peace. Peace right now is further away than we ever could imagine, but what makes me sad the most is the following. Once humankind was proud on its history, but nowadays our history is under attack .... not so long ago Nimrud and Hattra were destroyed and now maybe Palmyra is the next piece of history to be destroyed.
Of course this has nothing to do with our Haiku Kai, but sometimes I just have to share this kind of things ... and I hope you don't mind ....
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| Credits: Palmyra, and ancient Roman city in Syria |
Back to our haiku for today from all directions. This haiku was a greeting verse for Hamada Chinseki, a physician, at his home, Sharaku Do, which had majestic views of Lake Biwa and its surroundings. There is a wordplay on nio, which can mean "a grebe" (Podiceps ruficollis) or "a plentiful water bird on the lake". It is also an abbreviation for the lake.
shiho yori hana fuki rete nio no nami
from all directions
blossoms blow into
waves of Lake Lute
© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)
Lake Biwa is a very well known fresh water lake in the Northeastern region of Honshu (the Southern Island of Japan) and Basho has written a lot of haiku with Lake Biwa as theme. Here are a few examples:
open the lock
let the moon shine in -
Floating Temple
© Basho (Tr. David Landis Barnhill)
The "Floating Temple" (or Ukimi Temple) is located on Lake Biwa by Katada, and is reached by boat or bridge.
Mii Temple,
I'd love to knock on it's gate:
tonight's moon
© Basho (Tr. David Landis Barnhill)
Basho held a moon-viewing party at Gichuji Temple, a few miles from Mii Temple on the souther shore of Lake Biwa. Basho draws on lines from a Chinese verse by Jia Dao: "Birds sleep in trees by the pond. Under the moon, a monk knocks on the gate".
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| Credits: Shinto Shrine on Lake Biwa |
full moon
reflecting her beauty in the water
of Lake Biwa
© Chèvrefeuille
Another one a baransu styled haiku:
moonlight reflects
spring breeze scatters her beauty
I bow and pray
© Chèvrefeuille
Well .... I hope you did like this episode notwithstanding my shared thoughts about destroying history. It just had to be said ...
This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until May 30th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our next episode, a river breeze, later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all.
The destruction of monuments in Syria and Itaq, and previously is a terrible crime. There are Syrians and Iraqis putting fale statues and artifacts up and hiding original ones, but many classical places are unprotected. The destructions are not ad-hoc. orders to do this are coming from somewhere, I have a good idea where, and are part of aa bigger plan.a terribly dangerous one. Obama for once is taking courageous teps with a rapprochement with Iran, a country that has done no-one any harm - they could be the best allies of the region, and should be.They are the best ones to help out Iraq and stop trouble in Afghanistan. Beautiful, peaceful haiku, from you and Basho's first one.
ReplyDeleteAnother wonderful post, Chev -- I hope you don't mind, but my response is based on your introduction :)
ReplyDeleteI know that this is of course not the place to protest these terrible things .. but I couldn't resist. History is unfortunately full of this sort of "political" action ... destroying historical and cultural ties isn't new to mankind - it's a means of "integrating" a foreign body of people into a conquerors subjects. It has nothing to do with one ideal or another ... all are involved. Recently we had the Taliban destroying the great stone Buddhas, we've had the bombing of ancient and historical cities - and let's not forget the great European bombing like Dresda. This is such a terrible part of our human make-up which doesn't seem to pass from us. So I wrote a protest choka for however useless it may seem --- as well as a haiku for Basho.
ReplyDeleteDear Kristjaan, from all directions we are affected, some of us in a more brutal and physical way; some of us in a more vivid psychological, yet this is planet earth; we are happy together or sad together
ReplyDeleteI have not been very present this month, but on the days i posted i was truly inspired by your writings and prompts
much love...
Chev.....I have once again borrowed ideas from everyone to write impressions (I hesitate to call all of them poems).....Thanks to all and please do look in....
ReplyDelete