I haven’t been able to post many of my lame attempts at one-breath poems this year, but that doesn’t mean I’m not obsessing about them. The Insect Museum team has been bogged down by research endeavors lately, which is, I must say, a highly desirable way to invest our energy. Between meetings, sorting, describing, (scientific) writing, (scientific) reading, etc., though, I’ve been brushing up on the masters: Bashō, Buson, Issa, and other giants of haiku. Emerging masters—i.e, the talented contestants in this year’s Hexapod Haiku Challenge—have been teaching me a thing or two about the medium, as well! [note: there's still plenty of time to submit your hexapod haiku to the HHC!]
My recent foray into the haiku literature began with the four volume set by R. H. Blyth, published in 1949, which arguably introduced the medium to the western world. It’s an amazing series if you can get a hold of it (currently out of print), and it’s inspired me to start a rather involved side project. More on that later…..MUCH later. Anyway, here’s a few fun insect haiku written by (well, translated from) the masters:
The nape of the neck of the firefly
Is red.
My colleague facetiously referred to this as a poem about “them redneck fireflies.”
At the white face of the child
In the small mosquito net.
Blyth refers to this poem as an example of how Buson’s descriptions are “so pictorial as to be unsuitable for poetry” (vol. 1, p. 338). I don’t know…when August rolls around and Aedes albopictus saturate the summer air, that’ll be my happy face in the mosquito net!
Some other delightful poems:
The night must be long,
It must be lonely.
Swift to the distant mountain,
Swift to return.
Even when pursued,
Never appears in a hurry.
For this last haiku Blyth writes (vol. 2, pg. 261): “This is a fact which every child and entomologist has experienced with chagrin. The pursuer dances about madly striking here and there, but the butterfly follows the uneven tenor of its way quite oblivious of the frantic, blundering, wingless biped who seeks its life.”
What a great image!
Tags: haiku
The four volume set by R. H. Blyth, published in 1949, “which arguably introduced the medium to the western world… an amazing series if you can get a hold of it (currently out of print)” is available @ NCSU Libraries:
http://www2.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/record/NCSU130294
That’s where I borrowed them from! I’m returning volumes 1 and 2 today, though, for those of you with access to the NCSU libraries…they make for fun reading.
Thank you for accepting my poem
Somehow, this one ought to be in the running for your contest:
http://godzillahaiku.tumblr.com/post/432481494/10
Ha ha ha! I don’t know how you find this stuff, Alex, but that one brought a tear to my eye – both for the sentimentality and the laughter that followed!