Sunday, October 29, 2017

Carpe Diem #1293 Time Travel, ancient Japanese poetry to inspire you


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at the first of our two last prompts in our celebration month. I had planned a lot of new things, but it all turned out to be a to big task ... I had hoped to give you our new CDHK E-book "tribute to Jane", but I hadn't time to create it. I have started creating it, but you have to wait a little while longer. I have tried to create our You Tube Channel "Karumi", but making such a channel turns out to be not very easy. It needs more time and work than I had expected ... so ... our You Tube Channel has to wait too.
There however were a few ideas that I could create. First there is our CDHK Forum, you can find it at the right of our Kai and I finally had time to revive our weekly meme, Haiku Shuukan, that you can find at the left of our Kai.
Than of course there is our special feature which I created for our CDHK feuilleton "Wandering Spirit". Recently I created the "Wandering Spirit Challenge" in which Yozakura asked you for help with creating the 'daisan' (third verse) of a renga. You all had ideas for this 'daisan' and together with Yozakura I am now busy to select the "winning" 'daisan'.

Logo Carpe Diem's Time Travel

Okay ... back on our trip along memory lane. This celebration month we were on a trip along memory lane through the rich history of our Haiku Kai. Today I have chosen a episode of our "Time Travel" feature in which I challenged you with ancient Japanese poetry. And in Japanese history there is a lot of beautiful poetry to find and read.

Let me give you a piece of one of the episodes of "Time Travel":

[...] In the Hyakunin-isshu are themes such as nature, the round of the seasons, the impermanence of life, and the vicissitudes of love. There are obvious Buddhist and Shinto influences throughout.

An example of the Tanka in Hyakunin-isshu created by Emperor Tenchi (7th century):

Aki no ta no
Kari ho no iho no
Toma wo arami
Waga koromode wa
Tsuyu ni nure-tsutsu.

OUT in the fields this autumn day
They're busy reaping grain ;
I sought for shelter ’neath this roof,
But fear I sought in vain,—
My sleeve is wet with rain.

A very nice Tanka I would say. It's written in a very sophisticated style that fits the Emperor. I especially like the rhyme in the last two lines. As you all know (maybe), it is "not done" to use rhyme in Tanka, but in this one it seems that it had to be that way. It gives the Tanka "style". [...]

Mount Yudano

The above tanka brought a (not so well known) haiku by Basho in mind.

katara re nu   yudano ni nurasu   tometo kana

forbidden to say
how sleeves are wetted
in the bathroom

© Basho

Mount Yudano was a sacred and secrative place for the Shinto sect. More about this haiku by Basho you can find at Basho Revisited, one of my other personal weblogs.

There are a lot of haiku (and tanka) in which several myths and secrets are hidden. For example in a lot of haiku and tanka the poets hide sexuality and the beauty of human body.

So for this episode I love to challenge you to create a haiku or tanka in which you hide sexuality and the beauty of the human body. I will give you an example, which you maybe remember:

what has happened?
petals of red roses around
the morning glory

© Chèvrefeuille (2012)

"Morning glory" points to a certain male part. So in this haiku you find hidden sexuality and the beauty of the human body.

This, delayed, episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 5th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our last episode of this celebration month, twilight, later on. For now .... have fun!


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