古井戸のくらきに落る椿哉
furuidono kurakini otsuru tsubakikana

an old well
into the darkness
falls a camellia
—Buson

(Tr. David LaSpina)

(woodblock print by Zuigetsu Ikeda)

The camellia is a plump flower. When it falls it makes a little thud that is actually loud enough that it might draw your attention in a quiet environment. One can imagine the splash resulting from the flower's fall into the old well.

This haiku has hints of Basho's most famous haiku†:

An old pond...
a frog leaps,
splash

Buson riffed on that haiku a few times, playfully poking at it but also using it as inspiration. You can see a similar structure in this one. We don't have the explicit sound at the end as we do in Basho's haiku, but the falling camellia implies the same sound in a few moments. This is a zen quality of mindfullness to this poem.

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Footnotes:

†: Not only his most famous, but this is the most famous haiku in Japan and perhaps in the world. I will do a separate post on it sometime, but if you don't want to wait for me, just Google something like "Basho frog haiku".

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Don't miss the other great haiku in the Haiku of Japan series!

1. Traveling to the inn
2. Childless Woman
3. Old Dancing Butterfly
4. Seeing the Moon
5. Checking the Scarecrow
6. Skill of Insects
7. The Spider Lilies
8. A Thousand Green Mountains
9. Falling Lead Enlightenment
10. Lonely Night
11. Her Day Off
12. Autumn Crow
13. Faint Footprints
14. Alone on the Road
15. Autumn Begins
16. Early Morning Moon Viewing
17. Mistaken for a Scarecrow
18. The Galactic River
19. The Love of Cats
20. Autumn Waterfall
21. The Thief and the Moon
22. My Frozen Balls
23. Saké Waves
24. Friends with the Moon

❦

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.