takotsubo ya hakanaki yume o natsu no tsuki
fleeting dreams
under a summer moon
—Bashō
Octopus pots functioned as traps. In the days of Bashō, pots were lowered during the late afternoon and octopuses would crawl into them at night, then in the morning the pots were raised. Summer nights are brief, giving the octopuses time for a brief dream before their end.
This was composed in Akashi, near the Seto sea, where the Heike warriors died jumping into the sea after their loss at the battle of Dan-no-Ura. The famous war between the Genji and the Heike for control of Japan was recorded in The Tale of the Heike, an epic that emphasizes the shortness of life with it's famous opening:
The ring of the bells at Gion temple
echoes the impermanence of all things.
The color of the sala flowers
reveals the truth that to flourish is to fall.
The proud do not endure long
like a passing dream on a spring night.
The mighty fall at last,
like dust in the wind
Brief dreams, brief lives, all under a brief summer night's moon.
❦
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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. |
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That is, me! If you like this translation, feel free to use it. Just credit me. Also link here if you can. ↩
seriously, thanks I like this. much very.
Excellent poetry. I enjoyed the octopus pot poem. It is interesting how many poems try to capture the brief and impermanent nature of life.