Monday, June 25, 2018

Carpe Diem #1461 waterfall (taki)


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today another nice classical summer kigo. Our kigo for today we have seen here very often, but I think that this kigo has so much hidden it that we can use it often here at our wonderful Kai.

I found a nice haiku by Basho with this kigo in it, I don't know who was the translator of this haiku, so my apologies for that.

overhanging pine…
adding its mite of needles
to the waterfall

© Basho (Tr. unknown)

Urami no taki; the waterfall seen from behind; woodblock print by Kobayashi Kiyochika, 1896

Our classical kigo you will find in the last line of this haiku. Today's classical kigo is waterfall (taki) and Basho has written several haiku with this kigo. In his Oku no Hosomichi (The Small Road Into the Deep North) he wrote about a waterfall that had a cave behind it's surface:

[...] "After climbing two hundred yards or so from the shrine, I came to a waterfall, which came pouring out of a hollow in the ridge and tumbled down into a dark green pool below in a huge leap of several hundred feet. The rocks of the waterfall were so carved out that we could see it from behind, though hidden ourselves in a craggy cave. Hence its nickname, See-from-behind (Urami-no-taki). [...]

for a while
secluded behind the waterfall
summer retreat begins


© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold, 'Basho, the complete haiku')

I think you already have noticed that our classical kigo is waterfall (taki) and I think it's a wonderful kigo to create haiku or tanka with.

Here is one of my haiku from the archives:

the waterfall
ah! that sound ...
mesmerizing

© Chèvrefeuille

And of course I had to create a new one also:

in awe
the sound of falling water
nightingale's song


© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until July 2nd at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.
For our friends on the Southern Hemisphere I have a nice classical kigo for winter: fireplace (ro)


1 comment:

  1. Late again!
    http://purplepeninportland.com/2018/07/03/lion-in-rainbow/

    ReplyDelete