Carpe Diem #784 hirune (nap)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This month full of classical kigo for summer is running to its end and we have only a few days left this month. Right now I am busy with preparing our new prompt-list for August. In August we are going on an adventure ... we will sail the Nile from its delta to its well and during that journey we will see a lot of beauty .... I hope you all will like that journey, that adventure. We will explore the "afriku" further as invented by Adjei Agyei Baah, our featured haiku poet from Ghana. Next month our featured haiku poetess will be our winner of the second kukai "summertime", Laura Williams a.k.a. Lolly and of course we will have a special Tokubetsudesu episode about Jen (a.k.a. Paloma) of Blog It or Lose It. But that's all for next month. I hope to publish our new prompt-list later on this week. Here is our logo for next month already:

Ok ... back to our prompt of today. Today our classical kigo (seasonword) is hirune or nap. A nice kigo I think and I think you all will understand that this is a wonderful kigo for summer. For this episode I have gathered a nice series of haiku by different haiku poets. Our first haiku is one which Basho wrote a while before he died on October 12th 1694.

hiya hiya to kabe wo fumae te hiru ne kana

a midday nap
putting the feet against the wall
it feels cool

© Basho (Tr. R.H. Blyth)

chilly coolness
my feet on the wall
a midday nap

© Basho  (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

'A midday nap' is not a well known haiku of Basho, but in my opinion it's a wonderful one. He goes back to the essential element of summer heat ... to cool down. In this haiku the cooling down comes from the cool wall to which he is putting his feet. It's just the simple experience of the cool wall on a hot summer day.

this summerday
the heat makes me drowsy -
the cool stone wall

© Chèvrefeuille

And here are the other haiku which I would like to share here to inspire you:

hiru neru ni yoshi to iu hi ya niji hajime

a noon nap
on a good day...
first rainbow

© Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828)

lying on the beach
dreaming away in a midday nap
departing spring

© Chèvrefeuille

midday nap
a hot summer day break
against the cool wall

© Chèvrefeuille

hana ni kite hana ni ineburu itoma kana

viewing cherries,
he takes a nap;
what a leisure time!

© Yosa Buson (1716-1784)

kyarakusaki hito no karine ya oborozuki

fragrance of incense
around a man while he naps--
a cloudy moon.

© Yosa Buson

suwari taru fune ni neteiru atsusa kana

in a boat grounded at low tide,
taking a nap
in the summer heat!

© Yosa Buson

utataneno samureba haruno higuretari

a short nap,
then awakening--
the spring day darkened.

© Yosa Buson

And for closure I love to share a haiku by Soen Nakagawa, one of our featured haiku poets last year. I think you will remember this one:

aiming my penis
out over the steppes
awoken from a nap

© Soen Nakagawa (1907-1984)

To this haiku he adds, “The word penis had never been used before in a haiku, and I was criticized for exposing such a thing! But a penis is just a penis. Nowadays there is confusion regarding sex. But in truth, sexual energy, like digestive energy, is God’s fine energy, Buddha’s energy, cosmic energy.”

All wonderful haiku on hirune or nap and I hope this episode will inspire you to write an all new haiku or tanka ... I have given it a try too, so here is my attempt:

awakening
in the arms of a stranger
after a nap

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 30th at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, a new Tokubetsudesu, later on. For now ... have fun!