Hunger

no hunger
like the hunger of a seagull
at the crab shack


Spent the morning reading Sam Hamill's The Essential Bashō (Shambhala Press, 1999). One particular haiku stood out because of its utter simplicity. Here it is in Japanese first.

Matsushima ya
ah Matsushima ya
Matsushima ya

Notice all the repetition. Here's it in English:

Pine Islands, ah!
Oh, Pine Islands, ah!
Pine Islands, ah!

Bashō once said he spent years trying to "learn how to listen as things speak for themselves." Hamill remarked that a poet could only get away with a poem like this once. But Bashō was so overwhelmed by the beauty of these two hundred plus islands, that words could not express what he saw when he first arrived. This haiku is his attempt to describe his wonder and awe at seeing this plenitude of islands, each with wind-bent pine trees pointing in different directions.

This haiku serves as a good lesson about the limits of vocabulary in recording our thoughts and feelings. It also teaches us how repetition can be more powerful than added description. And it provides a great lesson on taking risks.