Monday, 10 October 2011

A Hundred Vistas to Self-Fulfilment

Like a tree whose falling leaves
Cultivate new birth,
Misty clouds soon clear,
Opening a hundred vistas
To self-fulfilment.
—okei, Tamara & Basho

*improved double-haiku-version*
 (10/10/2012)

Like a maple's leaves
That fall in festive hue and
Cultivate new birth

Misty clouds soon clear
Opening a hundred vistas
To self-fulfilment.

—okei 

12 comments:

  1. Thanks! Yes, I'm around, but mainly from a mobile which is how I posted this... :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks again Shahrizat.

    Waves to Eden, Jon and Tamara who inspired the beginning lines.

    ReplyDelete
  3. He's the most famous writer of haiku! Looks him up... from 17th century Japan.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashō

    Here's a famous example, where the last line in Japanese is supposed to resemble in sound the splash of the frog...

    furu ike ya / kawazu tobikomu / mizu no oto
    an ancient pond / a frog jumps in / the splash of water [1686]

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  4. I posted this originally on Taiwan's 100th birthday, though didn't mention the connection. Almost a year later, I re-posted it, and I could hardly believe that it really was just a week short of a year later. This is the improved verse in the form of a double haiku. Fitting that the season was autumn, the time of secret regeneration, the time of the beginning of the new academic year. May you too find inspiration in this coming year!

    *Improved Version*

    Like a maple's leaves
    That fall in festive hue and
    Cultivate new birth

    Misty clouds soon clear
    Opening a hundred vistas
    To self-fulfilment.

    ReplyDelete