Cicada's Cry :: Haiku of Japan #102
やがて死ぬけしきは見えず蝉の声
yagate shinu keshiki wa miezu semi no koe
soon to die
yet no sign of it
in the cicada's cry
—Basho
(Tr. David LaSpina)
("Cicada" by Omoda Seiju)
Most translators reverse the order of this one, giving us something like:
in the cicada's cry
is no sign
it will soon die
I present them both and you can choose the one you like best. I favor keeping the images in the same order as the original poet, but there are good arguments for reversing them.
In all his haiku books, Robin Gill gives us multiple translations for each poem. His stated reasoning is that even the best translation can rarely capture the Japanese, so it is better to hint at the original by looking at several different ways of translating it. It is a unique approach.
Basho wrote a headnote for this one: "The fleeting transience of life". After years living underground, the cicada dig themselves out, shed their skin, and start singing. Then within a few days they mate and die. When we watch the cicada and their short life, we are reminded of how fast it goes—how fleeting it is.
Yet, the cicada sing for the moment without a care of what is to come, without any sign that their end is near. Living for today—living in the moment—is at the heart of Buddhist practice, and Basho would have been well familiar with it.
❦
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Beautiful Japanese photos
Look, this is a beautiful post but God are those bugs annoying. They drive me crazy because that`s all I've been hearing all summer long!!!
Haha you, sir, have the common foreigner attitude. ;) I love them. Their buzzing is relaxing. One of the cool things about shrines here is that they are kind of mini-forests and attract thousands of cicada. I love visiting them!
Nice, this approach to giving multiple translations to let the reader truly engage with the original, even if they don't understand that original language. Thank you for sharing!
"Soon to die, yet no sign of it, in the cicada's cry".
I still remember how excitedly my late American husband flew to China from US at that time. Before he taught English in China, he especially studied hard for a few months to obtain his TEFL certificate. He wanted to start a new life, who knows his life just came to an end after 1 year of his "singing" in China ? Otherwise, the real good days were coming, he would be the teacher/professor in a Chinese college.
He dedicated his life in teaching Chinese students, he was the most kindhearted American who always loved to help people. He taught English for free in the English corner every Saturday, offering a wonderful chance of learning English from American teacher for poor Chinese students.
Only God knows how China is a very closed country! Most of Chinese have even never seen any foreigner in reality in lifetime.
"in the cicada's cry
is no sign
it will soon die"
Japanese haiku is always beautiful! After experiencing the sudden death, I can understand that kind of art beauty of "the fleeting transience of life" so well!