Carpe Diem #1403 Mountains (kikôbun)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

This month is a real challenge. Every day writing a haibun isn't easy as I can say, because I haven't written a haibun or one-bun myself. Maybe it's not really my "cup of tea", but I hope you all have inspiration enough to write haibun.

Today I have a nice prompt for you Mountains and I remember that I once did an episode about that famous novel by the French René Daumal "Le Mont Analogue". Let me give you a short discription of this novel that was published back in 1952.

Mount Analogue (cover)

Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing is a classic novel by the early 20th century French novelist René Daumal. The novel is both bizarre and allegorical, detailing the discovery and ascent of a mountain, which can only be perceived by realising that one has travelled further in traversing it than one would by travelling in a straight line, and can only be viewed from a particular point when the sunrays hit the earth at a certain angle.

"Its summit must be inaccessible, but its base accessible to human beings as nature made them. It must be unique and it must exist geographically. The door to the invisible must be visible."

Daumal died before the novel was completed, providing an uncanny one-way quality to the journey. Father Sogol – the "Logos" spelled backwards – is the leader of the expedition—the expedition to climb the mysterious mountain that unites Heaven and Earth.

Mount Analogue was first published posthumously in 1952 in French as "Le Mont Analogue".

"Mount Analogue" is a wonderful novel and I have read it several times. It's a nice start-point for this new episode.

René Daumal author of "Mount Analogue"

Today I challenge you to create a kikôbun, I think at least one of our family members will be glad that he has to write a kikobun themed mountain(s). Let me give you an explanation of kikôbun:

What is a kikôbun?

It is structured somewhat like a haibun, a passage of prose with at least one short poem (haiku or tanka). It features landscape and nature, and interaction between writer and the landscape. Bashô focused on exactly that, the nature and not on prescribed formulas or conceptions.
The key specification is that a kikôbun involves movement of the writer, in that it is a short travel diary. The haiku should not repeat what is in the prose, and should not attempt to ′globalise’ the prose like a conclusion.

Well ... enough "talking" time to go and tell your story, share your story with us.

Fitz Roy Mountain Argentina

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until April 10th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, Happiness, later on. For now ... have fun!