“on dry and dusty roads/ the nights we spend apart alone/ i need to get back home to cool cool rain”

[larryhammer]

My haiku + woodblock print calendar has served up a pretty good combination this month. The haiku is Bashō:

futari mishi
yuki wa kotoshi mo
furikeri ka

The snow we two once
viewed together—has it
fallen again this year?

The translator did a pretty good job of bringing across both the tone and literal sense, without padding (arguably both “two” and “together” are redundant for sense, but with both brings out the strength and dual-form-edness of futari better than either alone), while matching the 17-syllable form. Yeah, it breaks into 5-6-6 instead of 5-7-5, but knowing by experience how hard this is to pull off, I’m more than willing to give that a pass. Well done.

The picture is Spring Snow by Takahashi Hiroaki, and it … just fits. I especially like the woman’s expression as she looks back through the snow but the basket of flowers & veggies and the touches of pink make the season, and the hope it represents, perfectly clear.

---L.

Subject quote from Love Reign O'er Me, The Who.

Comments

[larryhammer]

I like it when different art forms pull together.