Yo no naka no

世の中の/重荷おろして/昼寝かな
(正岡子規 1867-1902)

yo no naka no / omoni oroshite / hirune kana
(Masaoka Shiki 1867-1902)

dropping the
world's burden:
afternoon nap


Once again there is 'kana' in the haiku. It seems this afternoon sleep is very important to Shiki somehow, but in English an exclamation mark or dot dot dot at the end would look absurd. Another point to note in the translation is that 'oroshite' would probably translate more directly as 'laying down' than 'dropping', but I felt that didn't scan too well. Perhaps I'm being a little flippant about Shiki's sleep, as the point is not so much about forty winks, as taking some time out from work and returning refreshed. It's a rather simple point perhaps, but in this case I don't feel there's anything else behind the poem.

Having said which, it's beautifully expressed. I'm reluctant (and probably unable) to unpick all the sounds, the effects of the recurring 'o's and 'n's, but they do combine to achieve a wonderful poem, making it far more than its straightforward 'meaning'. With today's haiku by Shiki, and previous haiku by Buson and Issa, I've now looked at one from each of three of the four great masters of the form. The remaining figure is Basho, of course, and due to his fame, all of the poems in my book by Basho are readily available elsewhere on the internet.