Frog and pee

It’s fairly easy to take a pop at haiku, the Japanese poetry form. Three lines of 17 syllables (five, seven, five) make a good target for mockery—possibly because of the semi-obligatory Zen component that can seem pretentious.

Viz: these examples from Kate Miller-Wilson

On yoga:

I’d go to yoga,
But they don’t serve donuts there.
Namaste right here.

On a road trip with kids:

Music on, windows down,
We’re not even late yet, but...
Someone has to pee.

On cats:

In the morning light,
You sleep despite my meow.
I stand on your face.

And yet—even these spoofs carry haiku-like universal truths, distilled to their pure essence because of the limitations of the form.

Poetry always wins, folks.

But let’s also have some more, ah, kosher examples from a master, Matsuo Bashō, perhaps the most famous poet of the Edo period in 17^th Century Japan. Here’s one of his in the original transliteration, with several translations. Note that getting the sense of the poem in English sometimes results in violating the syllabic strictures:

Furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto

The old pond,
A frog jumps in:
Plop!
       Alan Watts

The old pond —
a frog jumps in,
sound of water.
        Robert Hass

dark old pond
:
a frog plunks in
        Dick Bakken:

Listen! a frog
Jumping into the stillness
Of an ancient pond!
        Dorothy Britton

 

 

 

 

 

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