Quiet Lilies ~ Haiku of Japan

almost 2 years ago

The other day, @koto-art posted some great photos of some lilies from her garden. Lilies always call to mind this haiku from Issa:

しんしんとゆりの咲けり鳴雲雀
shin-shin to yuri no saki keri naku hibari

silently
blooming lilies...
a skylark crys out
—Issa

(trans. David LaSpina^[1])

^{"Lilies" by Hokusai}

Shin-shin is a deep, hushed silence and stillness. Think of a snowy night when the snow has muffled the world and it has given us a profound peaceful silence. Now imagine a lily blooming in and with that same stillness. Suddenly the silence is broken by a piercing cry of a skylark!

This is a very common structure. Some kind of stillness, broken by an action. This structure has been in almost constant use since Bashō wrote what is now considered the most famous haiku of all time:

古池や蛙飛びこむ水の音
furuike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto

an ancient pond...
a frog leaps
sound of water

Something about Issa's variant always sticks in my mind.

The lily is a season word (kigo) for early summer or midsummer, depending on the saijiki (an encyclopedia of kigo) you check. Skylark, on the other hand, is a season word for all of spring. In this haiku the lily is the focus, so that's our main kigo, making this a summer haiku. Also, Issa wrote this in the fourth month, which was the first month of summer on the old calendar.

❦

	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.