White Herons
February 14th 2008 10:46
WHITE HERONS
Two more Haiku for Katyzz and Harry and the lurkers who dont post!
But first a Picture ... this is a an early twentieth century print by Ohara Koson
White Herons by Ohara Koson
This is how Japanese artists see Herons. - Sagi in Japanese. Lu in Chinese.
The closest species we have to the Northern Hemisphere Great White Heron is probably the smaller Cattle Egret a close relative!
Chiyo wrote :
Koe nakuba sagi ushinawamu kesa no yuki
Literally Voice crying if ... herons disappear be lost to not ...this morning of snow
Or If not for their voices the herons would disappear in this morning of snow!
The modern form of ushinawa is ushina(u) -mu is a bungo form of the negative suffix written as -n in modern Japanese. Sagi are herons of several species but usually it indicates white herons. kesa is probably a pun. Its written with kanji meaning this present now time but means morning and there is a very similar verb kesu meaning extinguish or gone out which reinforces the idea that herons are lost to the snow!
Invisible but not unheard!
There is an older poem by Sokan which sometimes gets compared to Chiyo's haiku.
But first another image this time a photo!
Kosagi from Lake Biwa
I'm not sure if these two images are copyright but I think since they're being using for educational purposes thats not a problem?
Koe nakaba ... sagi koso yuki no ... hito tsurane
voice sing if heron emphatic pronoun snow of single group going past
Koe vocie nakaba is either naku 's stem plus -ba or another word nakaba meaning a middle of or middle of (the sky?) I have not seent ehkana and kanji for this poem only the romaji!
Tsurane is probably the past participle of tsuraneru?
This haiku means ?
The crying of the herons because of this snow as they cross the sky in a single group / line
The voices dividing the sky these herons through the snow crossing the sky in a united group.
Its more poetic in Japanese!
Reember this is thick deep northern hemisphere whitening out the sky snow!
Enjoy!
I'm thinking of doing a haiga of the Chiyo poem using digital sfx!
I'll let you know when its done.
It will take a few days to work out the best combo of filters and gradients!
Off to find some snowflake clip art!
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Comment by Lex
What do you mean?
There is a dance of the heron called Shirasagi no mai which has been done every year since the 17th century.
Most famously at Asakusa. The costumes are beautiful.