haiku: the biggest poem

 

Furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto

This haiku by Matsuo Basho is the most popular haiku known in the literary world in English. R. H. Blyth translated it this way:

The old pond;
A frog jumps in —
The sound of the water.

Like I said, this poem is very popular. It has been translated in different ways but the intent of Basho could be understood. Along with the poet Ricardo de Ungria and my other blockmates, we discussed the said poem over a workshop facilitated by the Davao Writers Guild which is actually sponsored by the NCCA.

The Frog haiku has become a very common for us Creative Writing Students. It is as if the poem itself became a cliche. But after discussing it with Sir Ricky, we found out the magnificence of it. Just basing in the exact words and the connotations it beheld, we were able to determine the haiku’s essence.

Old pond connotes the pond to be arid or barren. It is an assumption that we develop whenever we know of an ancient pond. Then comes this frog who enters the scene, jumping. We can see the disturbance he made. Vital part is the sound of water.

Where did the water came from?

Now we understand that the poem actually talks about discovery and surprise. Another haiku we tackled before we ended was by Arakide Moritake. The haiku reads:

A cherry petal
flies back up to its branch—
oh, a butterfly!

This poem also talks about surprise and discovery. But Moritake’s haiku also generates the idea we really can relate at—disappointment. The wonder of cherry petals going back to its branch captured the speaker’s delight. But the discovery of the petals being butterflies and the mystery being explained brought disappointment.

A big WOW! Poetry has become a very interesting form of literature for me. I’m still starting to write there. I’ve been writing prose for a while now but I really am very excited to do poetry.

I’d like to thank Ate Chi for making things possible with Sir Ricky and for my blockmates for being there in the workshop. The workshop is still starting so I couldn’t actually write anything accurate about it yet.

In parting I would like to leave a haiku for you to ponder, please comment on what you think!

Spare the fly!
he prays with his hands
he prays with his feet

-Kobayashi Issa-