Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend full of inspiration. I had to work this weekend, but nevertheless I had a wonderful weekend. Our youngest grandson (4 yrs) stayed with us and that was a real joy. And today we had two of our older grandkids visiting us. So I had a wonderful weekend.
This month full of classical and modern seasonwords (kigo) for winter is almost over. We have four days to go this month, so four kigo for winter to share with you for inspiration. Today I have chosen a classical kigo ... flowers out of season (kaeribana). Literally this kigo means "returnig flowers", so this one is a kigo for late winter.
Here I have a classical example by Kobayashi Issa:
yama-gawa no ushiro tsumetashi kaeri-bana
by a mountain stream
catching a chill...
out-of-season blooms
© Issa (Tr. David Lanoue)
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| kaeri-bana (crocus) |
I think this classical kigo will inspire you to create your masterpieces. So try to create a classical haiku (or tanka) following the classical rules ... and let it be one of your new masterpieces ...
This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 3rd at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now .... have fun! Have a great week!
Hi Kristjaan - sorry I have not been able to post haiku lately - I sincerely hope to come back on board soon. I have meanwhile been writing emails with a dear ex-student of mine, called Maya Sebök, who used to write beautiful haiku, and does again. She lives in Hawaii, and is currently recovering from an illness. I would like to quote what she wrote to me recently here, because it is simply beautiful:
ReplyDelete"A little less than 30 years ago you tried to explain to me about Japanese symbology. Something along the lines of 'you need to live in that particular culture to have an understanding of the multiple layers of interpretations to a visual symbol. Such a symbol is my repeated use of 'I sit' wording [in her haiku]. There is way more to it than just drawing attention to myself. It is a solid symbol to what all Japanese do: sitting still for long periods of time to meditate is literally what defines you as being Japanese. Even more so than genes. It is an expression that you wear the coat of a very disciplined culture. I have friends living in half Japanese marriages that struggle or don't work out at all. It isn't the lack of love, it is the lack of inner discipline, moreso even meditation that plaques them. And nobody realizes that it is not 'sitting' together that divides them. There is an ocean of meaning behind sitting.
Hi Hamish, my dear friend, no problem ... there is more in life than Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. Of course you are missed here, but you also have your own life and I know, my dear friend, that you live your life to the max. Being there for all those people who in some way need your attention and love. You are a real friend and in a way I love you for who you are.
DeleteThank you for this wonderful quote. There is for sure more meaning in sitting ... isn't that what haiku is? Sitting meditating being in close contact will all around us. Thank you my dear friend for you comment, your warmth and love for CDHK and our wonderful haiku.
* I meant "in close contact with ..." instead of "will".
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