(小西来山 1654-1716)
harusame ya / furu to mo shirazu / ushi no me ni
(Konishi Raizan 1654-1716)
spring rain
falling unnoticed
in the cow’s eyes
By contrast with the first haiku, this poem appears to be somewhat obscure. Konishi Raizan doesn't even merit a place in the Japanese version of Wikipedia, and unless there is something seriously wrong with my searching, the actual haiku only appears three times on the net in Japanese. The second line has caused me some problems for translation. On a Japanese forum that includes this poem, the poster notes in passing that the kind of light rain (霧雨) in the poem can be seen in the Jiangnan area of
I'm not sure who doesn't know (shirazu) or doesn't notice in the haiku, whether the cow or an observer, so I have sidestepped this question. There is also the regular problem, when translating from Japanese, of whether the cow or the eyes are singular or plural. I enjoy the version I have arrived at, finding it faintly comic, without being fully convinced that I have understood the haiku correctly. Perhaps I will return to this post if I gain a fuller understanding.
1 comment:
The website http://wayfarergallery.deviantart.com/journal/?offset=5 has a discussion of the poem taken from Donald Keene's World Within Walls. (I really should read that). Briefly, the cow is unaware the rain is falling, and the rain is reflected in the cow's eyes. As a leading Japan expert, I assume he's right and I'm wrong.
Post a Comment