Friday, June 11, 2010

Glistening -- Haiku by Paul Williams

Glistening ---
Ripples in a pond.
August moon.

matataku ya
sazanami ni ike
aki no tsuki.


I am rather proud of this haiku. I wrote and translated it in the early evening of 9 June 2010. I was home and had  just fallen asleep on my sofa while reading. I had (and still have) a very nasty cold so sleep was most welcome. 

Time passed. I began to awaken from a dream-like state. I was not yet fully conscious when this simple, beautiful, and very serene image came to mind. Not wanting to lose sight of the image, I believed I must remain asleep to prolong my enjoyment of it. How could such an image be rendered into words?

The words of the haiku began repeating themselves over and over again in my mind; I smiled.

There was a notebook and pencil on top of the coffee table beside my sofa. I reached over, grabbed the pencil, and hazily jotted down the poem. Had I not done this I assure you the poem and image would otherwise be forgotten as are most dreams.

Afterwards, I translated the poem into Hiragana and, to my good fortune, it took on the 5-7-5 syllable pattern of haiku. Now I just need to have the hiragana vetted :-).

Glistening ---
Ripples in a pond.
August moon.

matataku ya
sazanami ni ike
aki no tsuki.