Haiku by Yosa Buson. Artwork by myself.
For this haiga, I could not find the original haiku in Japanese. If anyone know it, please let me know.
Whenever I make haiga of haiku written by Japanese haijin, I try to get the idea of the haiku, which appeals to people without Japanese cultural tradition. In this haiga, I drew a scene that is more of less universal because haiku is quite universal. There is no need to include Japanese scenery or things.
As you see in the comment section, Mark Brooks san was so kind to take trouble finding the Japanese orginal haiku. I am now showing you here the revised version. He even sent me an image so I was able to see which parts are hiragana, which are kanji, and which kanji (different kanji for the same sound). Japanese is so complicated....
5 comments:
Kuni san,
it's very beautiful, and very deep for me.
The weakness of existence in front of the eternal returning of the leaves, that seem so fragile...
The human solidarity...The image is perfect and having a double dimension and speed ( the shadows of the men, the speed of the leaves in the wind ).
A great Haiga !
Kuni-san,
According to Sawa & Shiffert in Haiku Master Buson, the haiku is:
hitori kite hitori o tou ya aki no kure
The translation they propose is
Coming alone
to visit someone who is alone
in the autumn dusk
(p. 109)
Oh, and Blyth (Haiku vol 3, summer-autumn, revised, p 903) lists:
One came,
And visited someone;
An autumn eve.
Thank you all for nice comments.
Thank you, Mark san, for providing me with Japanese version. I will add that to the haiga.
Wonderful artwork, and final decision on the English-language version of Buson's haiku.
Congratulatiosn Kuni_san and Mark Brooks.
Alan
Alan’s Area 17 blog
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