Carpe Diem #1462 thin clothes (usumono)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

In winter we are wearing warm clothes, mostly made from thick fabrics, but as summer comes we change our clothes to more thin fabricated ones, because in the warmth, heat of summer that will keep us cool. Nowadays that custom is still in use I think, but ... maybe you are not someone that uses this custom.

Today's classical summer kigo is thin clothes (usumono) and I think it's an kigo we can work with. Today's episode will not be a long one, because of lack of time. So I leave you with this classical summer kigo: thin clothes (usumiono).

butterflies on summer-lilac

butterflies attend
the flowers of summer lilac (*)
nothing more, nothing less

© Chèvrefeuille

(*) Buddleia or Butterfly-bush

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 3rd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. Have fun!

For our friends on the Southern Hemisphere I have another nice winter kigo: yellowtail (buri). Seliola quinqueradiata

Carpe Diem #1460 heat at zenith (hizakari)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all have had a wonderful weekend full of inspiration. My weekend was okay ... I enjoyed being free and it gave me some time to meditate and contemplate about the future of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. What will bring us the future here at CDHK? I hope to create posts for several years, but I hope that you all will stay to participate. Making CDHK takes a lot of time, but I love making it. So I tried to look at CDHK in a new way ... what can I change to bring more haijin, visitors and travelers to our wonderful Kai? First I will create a new kukai next month; second I think I will bring back some features from the past; third I will try to create the possibility for you all to be part of CDHK in another way ... as co-editors. Maybe you can remember our Ghostwriter feature, in that feature I gave participants the possibility to create a post for CDHK and I remember that several of you did a Ghostwriter post here. Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, a warmhearted family of haiku poets, can grow further and can become better ... but I cannot do that without your participation. Well ... maybe you have some ideas to change Carpe Diem Haiku Kai and make it bigger and better than ever. Share your ideas with us all through the comment-field.

Heat at Zenith (hizakari)

Today's classical kigo is taken from the sub-division "The Heavens" and is a kigo for late-summer. Today's kigo is: heat at zenith (hizakari). This kigo points to the heat of the day as the sun is at its highest point. (Say around 12:00 PM). That moment of the day is really the hottest part of the day and, as I look at myself, it's that moment of day in summer that I will avoid as much as I can.
As you can see on the image above, the trees have the shortest shadow and that points towards the moment of the day that is called "zenith".

I found two haiku by Santoka Taneda (1882 - 1940) in which this classical kigo, heat at zenith (hizakari), is used:

Hizakari no O-Jizō-sama no kao ga nikoniko.

In the sunlight
Jizō's face *
Smiles brightly

* Stone statues of Jizō Bosatsu are often placed at crossroads or other places frequented by travelers. Jizō (Ksitigarbha) is the patron of children and travelers and is usually shown standing, holding a pilgrim's staff in his right hand and a pearl in his left. His head is shaven, and he has a compassionate smile.

Hizakari naite mo warōte mo hitori.

In the heat of the day
Crying or laughing--
Only one.

© Santoka Taneda

Jizo, patron of children and travelers

These haiku by Santoka Taneda are exceptional, because Santoka Taneda wasn't a great fan of the required kigo in haiku, but in these two haiku he uses our classical kigo for today, heat at zenith (hizakari).

the heat of the day
walking beneath the leaves of willows
ah! that coolness

© Chèvrefeuille

I hope I have inspired you. This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 1st at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our next episode later on.

Carpe Diem #1459 evening lull (yuunagi)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today summer starts and that makes me happy and I love to dance and sing in praise of summer, in praise of nature, wonderful and beautiful nature. Nature ... the source for all haiku poets. It's one of the main themes of the classical haiku and that's what we are exploring this month through the classical kigo of summer (and winter).

Today's summer kigo is evening lull (yuunagi) and I think this is what gave me the idea of dancing and singing to celebrate summer.

I had some trouble with todays kigo evening lull, but after some web-surfing I ran into the translation of lull. It turned out that it means pause, silence, repose, peace, stillness and tranquility. So yuunagi means evening peace, silent evening or so.

evening lull (yuunagi)

The above image, is that evening lull? A serene beach somewhere in Japan, the rippling of the water, the sun downing ... maybe a few seagulls that sre crying, maybe a faraway sound of a temple bell ... Yes ... this is (in my opinion) evening lull.

Here are a few haiku I have taken from my archives, just taking the easy way this time, forgive me.

deep silence
listening to the song of cicadas -
sultry summer night

evening lull
the sweet scent of Honeysuckle
arouses the senses

on the beach
around the campfire -
rippling waves

entwined bodies
in love on the beach -
evening lull

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 28th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, a weekend-meditation, later on. For now ... have fun!

Here is the kigo for winter to work with on the Southern Hemisphere: winter grove (fuyu kodachi)

Carpe Diem #1457 luxurance (shigeri)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It will not be easy to "translate" this kigo for you all, because it's a "rare" kigo and I even don't know if I have written it the correct way. Today's classical kigo is taken from the sub-division plants and I will try to explain it to you.

Luxurance (shigeri) is specifical used to describe the beauty of foliage, the beauty of the richness of for example the Wisteria, the Willow or other beautiful trees, bushes and flowers that are in full bloom. Isn't that richness? The beauty of nature that we are celebrating in every haiku or tanka.

Luxurance (shigeri) of foliage, nature is beautiful

Nature is beautiful and a rich source of inspiration. Well ... I think I will  write no more to explain our today's kigo luxurance (shigeri).

I found two nice haiku written by Buson (1716-1784) in which this kigo is used as I explained it:

sake jyuuda yuri mote yuku ya natsu kodachi

ten horses carrying loads of sake,
swinging, pass by a thicket
of trees in full summer foliage. 

© Yosa Buson (Tr. by Shoji Kumano)

izuko yori tsubute uchi kemu natsu kodachi

from nowhere
stone was thrown into a thick of trees
in full summer foliage. 

© Yosa Buson (Tr. by Shoji Kumano)

Two beauties by this haiku master, one of the five most famous classical haiku masters. He (Buson) was not only a haiku poet, but also a great haiga-painter. And ... he followed in the steps of Basho who he admired. He created haiga for the first edition of "the small road into the deep north", the most famous haibun ever.

Miscanthus

I have tried to catch this beautiful kigo in my haiku, but I couldn't come up with a good one. So I decided to dive into my archives and found a nice haiku in which this kigo, isn't visibly used, but can be found.

swaying in the breeze

like waves in the ocean

Miscanthus leaves

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 26th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode,  short night (mijikayo), later on. For now ... have fun!
And here is the winter kigo for our friends on the Southern Hemisphere, withered mums (karegiku)

Carpe Diem #1456 sweetfish (ayu)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai. I had an easy day today. I had a day off and so this day I was going with the flow so to say. Of course I was busy in another way. I am busy with creating new features here and I love to bring back a few of the features we have seen here. Last Saturday I started again with reading Jane Reichhold's "Basho, The Complete Haiku" and I ran into wonderful haiku written by the master. Haiku that I hadn't really read the last time I read this book. That brought me an idea that I will use next month, but there was also a very rare incident this weekend.
I got an issue of a renaown mindfulness magazine here in The Netherlands and I read a wonderful article in that issue. Maybe you rememeber that I did a pre-announcement about our upcoming summer -retreat and it's theme "Finding The Way". Well that article I mentioned above was about "Finding The Way", it was about a pilgrimage, not the usual pilgrimage as for example "the road to santiago", but about an "inner pilgrimage", a pilgrimage you can do in the warmth of your own home. I will tell you more about it as I start our summer retreat on July 15th.

Okay ... back to our all day business this month, classical kigo for summer. Kigo, as you all know, are words that point towards the season in which the haiku was written and kigo are part of the classical way of writing haiku (or tanka).

Today's kigo is sweetfish (ayu) and I will try to tell you a little bit more about this classical kigo for summer.

The ayu or sweetfish, is a species of fish. It is the only species in the genus Plecoglossus and family Plecoglossidae. It is a relative of the smelts.

Native to East Asia, it is distributed in the northwestern Pacific Ocean along the coast of Hokkaidō in Japan southward to the Korean Peninsula, China, Hong Kong and northern Vietnam. It is amphidromous, moving between coastal marine waters and freshwater lakes and rivers. A few landlocked populations also exist in lakes in Japan such as Biwa. It is an introduced species in Taiwan.

Sweetfish (ayu) grilled in salt

The name "sweetfish" was inspired by the sweetness of its flesh. In reference to its typical one-year lifespan, it is also written clled "year-fish". Some individuals live two to three years. The ayu is the prefectural fish of Gunma Prefecture and Gifu Prefecture.

I found a nice haiku by Basho (written in 1689) translated by Gabi Greve about this sweetfish (ayu):

ayu no ko no shirauo okuru wakare kana

young ayu sweetfish
are seeing off the whitefish
and say good bye

© Basho (Tr. Gabi Greve)

This is what is said about this haiku: The whitefish are the first to go upstream to spawn, the ayu follow them one month later. Basho and Sora are ready to depart for "Oku no Hosomichi" and he has to leave his young disciples (ayu no ko) behind at Senju.

And another haiku, also by Basho:

mata ya tagui Nagara no kawa no ayu namasu

once again - this rare

pickled sweetfish

from river Nagaragawa

© Basho (Tr. Gabi Greve)

Sweetfish (ayu) woodblock print by Utagawa Hirosighe (1797-1858)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 25th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, luxurance (shigeri), later on. For now ... have fun!

By the way here is the winter kigo for our friends on the Southern Hemisphere: wicker fishnet (ajiro)

Carpe Diem #1454 swimming (oyogi)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

A new day of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, the place to be if you like to share your Japanese poetry. And this month is already awesome through all those beautiful classical kigo for summer (and winter of course). It's a challenge for me, because I ask you to create haiku and tanka in the classical way, but I am not really into the classical way of writing haiku. I am more of the way of Santoka Taneda and Jane Reichhold, without those rules we all know (and can read in CD Lecture 1 above).

And I hope that our kigo for today will be a great source of inspiration for you too. Today our kigo is swimming (oyogi). It is taken from the summer sub-division Humanity. A nice one I think and one we can all relate to.

There are several sources that talk about "swimming (oyogi)", in the list I have used it's called a classical kigo, but other sources say that it is a modern kigo, so ... what to do ... with this kigo?
I searched for haiku with "swimming" in it and I ran into a nice series of haiku on swimming written by Issa. Let me give you an example of one of his haiku with this kigo:

mizu oyogu nomi no omoi ya kumo no mine

the swimming flea
thinks to reach them...
peaks of clouds

© Kobayashi Issa (Tr. Lanoue)

Let us take a look at Jane Reichhold's "Dictionary of Haiku" ... if this is a modern kigo. Well ... it's also a modern kigo for summer and one of Jane's haiku I love to share here with you. It's a nice one with a little bit of humor:

an old woman
swimming the August stream
the mossy smell

© Jane Reichhold (taken from the online version of her "Dictionary of Haiku")

Swimming (oyogi) (image © Eyes of Chris)

Koi swimming
through the clouds
reflection

© Chèvrefeuille

Hm ... not as strong as I had thought, but I had some problems to create a haiku with this kigo. So I came up with a kind of experimental haiku. For our friends on the Southern Hemisphere I have a nice winter kigo taken from the winter sub-division Humanity: searching for plum blossoms (tanbai).

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 21st at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new weekend meditation later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1453 dripping (spring-water) (shitatari)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Kai. As you already have read I think I was very busy today with creating a few new posts. I hope you did like our new "chapter" of "Wandering Spirit" and I hope you can appreciate our new feature on renga. I had a lot of spare time today, so I had the opportunity to be working on our Kai.

This month we are exploring the beauty of the classical kigo (seasonwords) as used in Japanese poetry and especially in haiku and tanka. Today I have another kigo taken from the Saijiki division summer. This time I have chosen a kigo from the sub-division Earth: dripping (spring-water)(shitatari). Water is essential for life and with this kigo is sais that water is important in summer, as we all know of course. In this kigo "dripping" means that drops of water are falling.

dripping (spring-water) (shitatari)

I found a nice haiku in which this kigo is used:

shitatari ya futto kuuki o kamu roojin

water dripping over moss -
the old man bites
a bit of air　 

© Ishida Yoshihiro (a contemporary of Basho)

And here is my attempt to create a haiku with this classical kigo for summer:

shitatari ruoto dake no natsuno arashino nochi

water dripping  
after the summer storm
the only sound

© Chèvrefeuille

I love these classical kigo, but to write in the classical way isn't really my "cup of tea" as you all know.
By the way here is the classical kigo of winter, also taken from the sub-division Earth, for our friends on the Southern Hemisphere: icicles (tsurara)

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until June 20th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, swimming (oyogi), later on. For now have fun!

Carpe Diem #1452 cool (suzushi)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I hope you all enjoy this month full of classical kigo for summer (and winter). I enjoy it very much to create these posts every day for you. It gives me the opportunity to dive into the beautiful history of haiku, tanka and other forms of Japanese poetry and it gives me the opportunity to try my hand on classical kigo myself.

Today I have taken a kigo from the sub-division of summer, the season. Our classical kigo for today is cool (suzushi) and it is normally used as a kigo for the summer evening in Japan. I think you all can relate to that, because after a hot summer day it is wonderful to sit down in the garden, on the porch, on the beach on a cool summer evening to cool down.

I found a nice haiku created by my master, Basho, that paints this coolness in a nice way, but without the kigo that we have to use today:

Basho wrote the following haiku in the Summer of 1688.

taneshisa ya   aota ni suzuma   mizu no ato

delightfulness
cooling oneself in a rice paddy
the sound of water

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

(In this haiku the word "suzuma" is "cooling oneself")

Cool (suzushi)

Here is a haiku written by myself in which I have used this classical kigo:

chasui ha futtou suru nai fan ni mo suzushi sa wo mitsukeru tame no houhou

tea water boils
no way to find coolness
not even a fan

© Chèvrefeuille

And I ran through my archives and found a nice tanka with the same theme:

seeking for coolness
in the depths of the heart -
Summer romance
laying in the shadows of the pines
cooling down

© Chèvrefeuille

Of course I have also a nice classical kigo of winter for our friends on the Southern Hemisphere. Today that will be: Indian summer (koharu)

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until June 19th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode, dripping spring-water (shitatari), later on.