【Update 2023-12-04: This is an outdated version of this article. For a more up to date version, please see: https://laspina.org/reward-of-persimmons/ 】
sanzen no haiku wo kemishi kaki futatsu
having reviewed
three thousand haiku—
two persimmons
—Shiki
(Tr. David LaSpina)
(Print by Kono Bairei)
At one time, Shiki worked as the editor of a haiku paper. We can imagine he had to weed through a lot of bad haiku in his search for good ones to publish.
Here he is promising himself a reward of persimmons if he can work his way through the pile of submissions in front of him.
Maybe a modern rewriting of this would substitute chocolate† for persimmons, but whatever motivates you to do the job, eh?
Footnotes:
†: Or a nice stout, such as Guinness, in my case.
Don't miss other great haiku in the Haiku of Japan series!
- Traveling to the inn
- Childless Woman
- Old Dancing Butterfly
- Seeing the Moon
- Checking the Scarecrow
- Skill of Insects
- The Spider Lilies
- A Thousand Green Mountains
- Falling Lead Enlightenment
- Lonely Night
- Her Day Off
- Autumn Crow
- Faint Footprints
- Alone on the Road
- Autumn Begins
- Early Morning Moon Viewing
- Mistaken for a Scarecrow
- The Galactic River
- The Love of Cats
- Autumn Waterfall
- The Thief and the Moon
- My Frozen Balls
- Saké Waves
- Friends with the Moon
- Falling Flower
- Winter Rain and No Hat
- Sleeping Boy
❦
David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. |