Born Lucky ~ Haiku of Japan
tori no uchi no taka ni umareshi nanji kana
you had the fortune
to be born a hawk
—Hashimoto Keiji
You can feel Hashimoto's love for hawks in this haiku. He wrote a number of haiku on hawks. How lucky to be born a hawk rather than some lowly other kind of bird. You can understand his love for them—hawks are pretty cool!
The kigo (season word) here is hawk (taka, 鷹). It is a kigo for all winter. I know hawks were used for hunting in the Edo era (1603-1868), but beyond that I don't know enough about them to say why they are a winter kigo, and my saijiki doesn't give any details on that. If anyone here is more familiar with birds, maybe you can make a guess why this is. If you do, post it in the comments.
❦
 |
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. |
If this blog post has entertained or helped you, please follow/upvote/reblog. If you want to further support my writing, donations are welcome.
That is, me! If you like this translation, feel free to use it. Just credit me. Also link here if you can. ↩
This post has received a 100.00% upvote from @fambalam! Join thealliance community to get whitelisted for delegation to this community service.
have no idea about it. But, I really liked this haiku. It says so much with so few words. Hits the point accurately!
Kigo means season word. I should start including a small definition list at the bottom of these haiku posts. Season words are special words that set the haiku in a specific season and often in a specific part of the season.
Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the comment.
Very beautiful haiku and very cool image, it must be great to be a hawk although I like eagles more, a hug friend =)
Eagles are pretty cool too! To be either one would be good.
Thanks for the comment 😃