Carpe Diem #1449 river frog (kajika)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new (belated) episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai were we are exploring the classical seasonwords for summer this month. I am again late because of a busy evening shift. My excuses for that, but sometimes the shifts at the hospital are very busy.

Today I have chosen a classical summer kigo from the sub-division "animals". Today the kigo to work with is river frog (kajika) or literarely "river deer".
Not so long ago we created a nice CDHK e-book together about "frogs" inspired on that renown haiku by my master Basho (1644-1694):

old pond
a frog jumps
sound of water

© Basho (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)

Kajika Frog (River Frog or "Singing Frog" or "River Deer"

Kajika or "singing frog" is the Japanese singing frog, known for its “fififi” call, is brown or gray-black. Other frogs merely croak or call, but this frog sings. In Japan it was once common to keep the singing frog in a special box, the better to hear its beautiful song, which, it is said, has a cooling effect in the heat of summer. The singing frog has webbed hind- but not fore-feet; the tips of fingers and toes have truncated discs, the better for gripping wet stones. The skin on the back is grainy. Males are 3-4.5 cm long, females are bigger, at 4-8 cm.
You can find them in mountain streams bordered by woodland, from Honshu to Kyushu, ideally streams with plenty of fist-size stones.

cycling home
accompanied by the song of frogs
the cool breeze

© Chèvrefeuille

Of course I have also a classical winter kigo for our friends on the Southern Hemisphere. This time I have chosen for (also) a kigo from the sub-division "animals": plovers, sand pipers (chidori)

Plover (Chidori)

And here is a not so renown haiku by my master Matsuo Basho:

yami no yo ya   su wo madowashi   naku chidori

darkness of night
lost from its nest
a plover cries

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until June 15th at noon (CEST. I will try to publish our new episode, a new weekend-meditation, later on. For now ... have fun!

Frog haiku

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Our new "weekend-meditation" is about the most famous haiku by Basho. I love to create an exclusive CDHK E-book with only frog haiku and frog tanka. So I love to ask you if you would like to post your frog haiku and frog tanka for this new E-book.

You can email them to our carpediemhaikukai@gmail.com  Please write "frog haiku / tanka" in the subject line or in your submissions for our "weekend-meditation ".

Let us create this frog E-book together as the loving haiku Kai family we are.

If you will participate in this new E-book please send your haiku to me before April 23rd 10 pm (cet).

Namasté,

Chèvrefeuille, your host. 

Carpe Diem Utabukuro #5 Origami frog

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's Saturday again, and as you all know it's my weekend off, but as Always I do the special episodes myself. And today that's an all new episode of our special feature "Carpe Diem Utabukuro".

This feature is based on a haiku by Basho which he wrote when he was around 22 years of age, it's one of his earliest known haiku according to Jane Reichhold. The logo above is a bag with a wonderful Japanese woodblock-print and in the logo you can read the romaji translation of the haiku on which this new feature is based. I will give that haiku here again:

はなにあかぬなげきやこちのうたぶくろ

hana ni akanu
nageki ya kochi no
utabukuro

© Basho

And this is the translation by Jane Reichhold:

flower buds
sadly spring winds cannot open
a poem bag

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

The goal of CD's Utabukuro is not difficult, because I just ask you to share a haiku or tanka which you admire. That haiku or tanka can be one of a classical or non-classical haiku poet or one by yourself. You can choose what ever you like, but it has to be a haiku or tanka. Maybe the haiku brings you sweet (or sad) memories or you just like it. Explain why you have chosen that haiku or tanka to share here "in" CDHK's Utabukuro, poem bag, and ... that is the second task for this feature, write/compose an all new haiku inspired on the one you have chosen.

William J. Higginson (1938-2008)

This time I have chosen for a series of three haiku written by William J. Higginson (1938-2008) a well known American haiku poet, who once was the president of the Haiku Society of America. He has written wonderful haiku and these three in particular I like the most. I will first give the three haiku which I have chosen:

origami frog:
what old pond is he hoping
to find in the dusk?

I look up
from writing
to daylight.

writing again
the tea water
boiled dry

© William J. Higginson (1938-2008) 

Origami: Jumping Frog

That first haiku touched me, because it brought immediately that wellknown haiku by Basho, my master, in mind:

ふるいけやかわずとびこむみずのおと

furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto

an ancient pond
a frog jumps in
the splash of water

© Basho (1644-1694)

The haiku by Higginson is a nice reproduction of this classic haiku and it refers towards that classic haiku by Basho. I like the humor in it.
I think you can recall the haiku which I wrote as an example of the baransu haiku writing technique with the first line of this well known haiku by Basho:

the old pond
yesterday ... Irises bloomed
only a faint purple

© Chèvrefeuille

And there are more haiku written, inspired on this one, so here is another example:

little child
reaches for the water lilies
not seeing the frog

© Chèvrefeuille

Or what do you think of this one composed by Yozakura (the Unknown Haiku poet):

against his nature,
a frog in front of the fireplace -
the cry of a stork

© Yozakura

All wonderful haiku I think, and all in some way connected to that famous "frog pond"- haiku.
The other two haiku by Higginson touched me because of the imagery in it. I see myself as the poet who sees the new day rise and who let the tea water boiled dry. I really can imagine those scenes. As I am busy preparing the posts for CDHK than I am all with haiku and cdhk and time flies without thinking of time. So those two haiku can be easily be written for me ... as I am totally with haiku ...

time flies
another 24 hours gone
writing haiku

© Chèvrefeuille

And I love to share a "tea-haiku" which I once wrote back into 2012 for Poets United's Wonder Wednesday. (You can find that post HERE).

translucent tea cup
hides a deep secret
ghost of tea

geisha's secret life
gathering tea leaves
for her lover

© Chèvrefeuille

Geisha

I hope you did like the read and I hope to see nice posts in response ... you don't need to use the haiku mentioned here by the way, you can choose a favorite haiku or tanka and share your feelings with us, the only thing needed is that you have to write an all new haiku or tanka inspired on the poems you have shared. Have fun.

This Utabukuro episode is open for your submissions at noon (CET) and it will remain open until next Saturday July 25th at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem Time Glass #20, A Frog Jumps In

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's time again for a time challenging Time Glass feature in which the goal is to write/compose a haiku within 24 hours and today I have made this challenge a little bit more difficult, because I love to challenge you all to write a haibun with the given prompt and the inspiring image.



Impression of Waterlilies

And this is our prompt: a frog jumps in which refers to that famous haiku by Basho:

the old pond
a frog jumps into it
the sound of water

(C) Basho (tr. Chèvrefeuille)

Back to the task. Maybe you can remember our Kamishibai Extreme challenge (2014-November). In which I challenged you to write a haibun (prose and haiku) on a given prompt with only 55 words (including the haiku). For this Time Glass episode I will challenge you again to write a haibun, with only 75 words, including the haiku, in just 24 hours.

To inspire you a little bit more, I have a few "frog"-haiku for you:

between dewy leaves
hides a little green frog
for the blue heron

© Chèvrefeuille

against his nature,
a frog in front of the fireplace -
the cry of a stork

© Yozakura

in deep silence
Saburo is walking the path -
a frog jumps away

© Chèvrefeuille

the little child
reaches for the water lilies
without seeing the frog

(c) Chèvrefeuille

Well .... this was our new Time Glass episode and I hope it will inspire you to write a haibun following the above mentioned rules and with the use of the prompt and image(s). You have to respond within 24 hours starting tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and ending tomorrow (February 9th) at 7.00 PM (CET). So ... you have JUST 24 HOURS to respond. Good luck, have fun and be inspired!

Carpe Diem "Little Creatures" #7, Sokan's "Reciting Frog"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

You all will certainly know the "frog"-haiku by Matsuo Basho, it's one of his most famous haiku.

furuike ya kawazu tobikamu mizu no do

the old pond:
a frog jumps in, -
the sound of the water

© Basho (Tr. R.H.Blyth)

The pond is old, in an old garden. The trees are ages old, the trunks green with the moss that covers the stones. The very silence itself goes back beyond men and their noises. A frog jumps in. The whole garden, the whole universe contained in one single plop! - sound that is beyond sound and silence, and yet is the sound of the water of the old pond.
Well ... it's a told story, but this haiku by Basho is even known by non-haiku-poets.

And than there is that haiku by Sokan (1465-1553), a not so well known haiku poet from the 15th and 16th century, but he wrote wonderful haiku in my opinion.

te wo tsuite uta moshiaguru kawaza kana

placing his hands on the ground,
the frog respectfully recites
his poem

© Sokan (Tr. R.H. Blyth)

Unless one has seen the costume of the aristocracy of Old Japan, the full aptness of the comparison is lost. He is dressed in the Japanese style with his kamishimo, stiffly sticking out and exaggerating the shoulders. Bowing low from the squatting posture, he begins his recitation in a strangely frog-like, sepulchral voice.

In the Kokinshu (10th century) we can read the following lines about frogs:

[...] "The nightingale that chants in the flowers, the frog that dwells in the water - are not both makers of poetry?" [...]

Sokan's poem is a kind of joke on the frog, but in addition, and what makes it poetry, it shows us something of the real frog, something of its essential nature.

Yozakura (1640-1716) wrote the following haiku about frogs:

danro kounotori no sakebi no maede kaeru no kareno seishitsunitaishite

against his nature, 

a frog in front of the fireplace -
the cry of a stork 

© Yozakura

And now it's up to you my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers, to write an all new haiku inspired on this episode of "Little Creatures". Have fun ...!

This episode is open for your submissions today at noon (CET) and will remain open until next Thursday October 9th at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem Sparkling Stars #1, "Frogpond"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I love to introduce an all new feature here at our Haiku Kai. It's a bit similar with the CD-Specials, but there is a little difference. In every episode (once a week on Thursday) I will introduce a 'masterpiece' of one of the classic haiku-poets (well-known and less-known) to inspire you to write a new haiku. Here is the difference with the CD-Specials. Those new haiku, inspired on the 'masterpiece', have to follow the classical rules of haiku:

1. 5-7-5 syllables
2. a kigo (or seasonword)
3. a kireji (or cutting word, in Western languages mostly interpunction)
4. a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water
5. a deeper meaning (could be Zen-Buddhistic or other spiritual or religious thought)
6. and the first and the third line are interchangeable.

Of course I will tell also something about the scene and background of the haiku which you can use for your inspiration. I hope this new feature will be fun.

Haiga "frogpond" (Woodblock-print)

For this first, introduction, episode I have chosen the well known haiku by Matsuo Basho "frogpond". This is situated during a gathering of Basho's disciples at his Basho-hut. Basho is writing a haiku, but doesn't get a good first line. he struggles with it and Kikaku, one of his disciples suggested 'Irisses pond', but than Basho 'sees the light' and writes:

the old pond (-)
      a frog jumps in
            sound of water

This one became that famous, because until than, the frog was used only for its own croaking and not for its movement. As you can see this translation doesn't follow the classical count, but in the Japanese Onji it follows for sure that count.  'Frog" is a seasonword (kigo) for Summer; the "-" is the cutting word (can be translated into the Japanese "ya"); it's a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water; the deeper meaning is in the 'movement' of the frog and if you interchange the first and third line the haiku is almost the same:

sound of water
       a frog jumps in
              the old pond

Well ... now it is up to you and I have struggled with my own new haiku, but maybe, I succeeded at last ...

in the dark forest
walking in the full moon light -
Nightingale's song

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until next Thursday (August 21th) at noon.

Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge #5, Basho's famous 'the old pond'.

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Another new episode of Carpe Diem's Tan Renga Challenge is on. This week I have chosen for a haiku which is very well known all over the world even by non-haiku-poets. This week I have Basho's famous 'the old pond' as first stanza of our Tan Renga.
The goal of this Tan Renga Challenge is to write the second stanza (7-7, but don't count them strict) of the Tan Renga.
Copy and paste the first stanza into your post and complete the Tan Renga with your second stanza inspired and associated on the first stanza.

First stanza:

the old pond
a frog jumps in -
the sound of water

Second stanza:

????????????????
????????????????

Enjoy the fun and make this Tan Renga complete with your second stanza. Here is my completion:


the old pond
a frog jumps in -
the sound of water                                           (Matsuo Basho, 1644-1694)

raindrops falling on bamboo
the silence of the night deepens                         (Chèvrefeuille, your host)


This episode of our Tan Renga Challenge will stay on 'till July 12th 11.59 AM (CET) and around that time I will post our Tan Renga Challenge. Be inspired and share your completion of the Tan Renga with Carpe Diem.

Namaste