Sabi is a Chaise Longue - Haibun/Haiga - March 28, 2016

What is "sabi"?   Something old, past, demode ... something that's somehow a faded memory like the old plastic chaise longue in the haiga above,  that in its heyday was an object that made someone happy or proud to own it.  I can almost feel the sensation that must have accompanied that first vision of the object ... the elation.  Now, so many years have passed.  The chaise longue sits in my son's garden in Padua, slowly losing it's lustre as it weathers.  No one remembers who bought it .. the house has changed had many many times over the years as one group of student substitutes another, no one even uses it except the cat. That to me is one meaning of "sabi". 

chaise longue
memories of summer's days
long forgotten

© G.s.k. ‘16

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"As fascinated as Westerners have become with the word, the Japanese have maintained for centuries that no one can really, truly comprehend what sabi really is and thus, they change its definition according to their moods. Bill Higginson, in The Haiku Handbook, calls sabi – "(patina/loneliness) Beauty with a sense of loneliness in time, akin to, but deeper than, nostalgia." Suzuki maintains that sabi is "loneliness" or "solitude" but that it can also be "miserable", "insignificant", and "pitiable", "asymmetry" and "poverty". Donald Keene sees sabi as "an understatement hinting at great depths".

So you see, we are rather on our own with this! I have translated this as: sabi (SAH-BEE)- aged/loneliness - A quality of images used in poetry that expresses something aged or weathered with a hint of sadness because of being abandoned. A split-rail fence sagging with overgrown vines has sabi; a freshly painted picket fence does not." As a technique, one puts together images and verbs which create this desired atmosphere. Often in English this hallowed state is sought by using the word "old" and by writing of cemeteries and grandmas."

 Carpe Diem #947 grass pillow

First Snow - Haibun - Time Glass Challenge - December 9, 2014

Credits: First Snow

The morning is cold, with that special kind of cold that says: snow.  The grey skies hang heavy and low. The world seems still, as though it’s waiting for something special to happen.

Walking in the nearby woods, the sparrows are silent. The wind picks up and rustles the trees, the sound reminds me of the movement of the sea on a winter beach.  Then I see it and I put out my wool-gloved hand.  The first snow flake of winter nestles delicately and I smile.

Crystal perfection

floating down upon the earth

an angel’s gem

© G.s.k. ‘14

Linked to Carpe Diem Time Glass #13 –  where we had 24 hours to write a haibun of less than 100 words about “first snow”. 

Castle - Haibun - October 7, 2014

Today's retrò post from Carpe Diem Haiku Kai is castle which was first posted in February of 2013.

 

 

Arco's Castle Haibun

 

The valley I live in  (Sarca Valley) sprawls under the ruins of a castle which sits on a mount, like a brooding hen.  It's interesting to imagine what life must have been for so many long centuries.  Last weekend, I visited the castle once again.  It was a special occasion as one of the pathways had been renovated making the walk around the grounds safer.  The city council organized guided tours for the occasion with various experts on the history of the castle, but also about the flora and geological period of our valley.  I was intrigued that the Conti D'Arco family originally came from Mantua, a city that I lived in years ago and of which I have fond memories. It gave me a feeling somehow of continuity.

 

 

brooding in darkness
Arco's castle remembers
days gone by

 Sarca Valley under Arco's Castle

 

The original photo of the above

 

 

Carpe Diem's Kamishibai - Departing Summer - August 18, 2014

What is kamishbai? Here let's look at what Chèvrefeuille has to say about it:

"As I have tried to catch up commenting I ran into several nice haibun written and inspired on the prompts of our Haiku Kai. So I think it's time for a new episode of our haibun-feature "Kamishibai" (which means story-teller in Japanese). The goal is to write a haibun inspired on the given prompt. For this episode that is "Departing Summer". Here in The Netherlands it's still summer, but temperatures are downing and it feels like autumn already. Trees are loosing their leaves already ... so I thought 'this is a great prompt for Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, and for our Kamishibai-feature'.
For this episode I love to challenge you a bit by giving a few rules which you have to use:

  1. A maximum of 100 words (don't ask me why);
2. the haiku has to follow a few of the the classical rules:
       a. 5-7-5 syllables;
       b. season word;
       c. cutting word (interpunction);
       d. interchangeable first and third line
3. (Not an obligation) I love to read it in English and in your own language (e.g. for me that would be Dutch)

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Summer Sentinels

"Evergreens are summer’s sentinels, reminding us that winter is a passing phase!" said Mysty-Lynn as she looked at the barren autumn trees.

"Wherever do you get these silly ideas?" replied her brother Michael-James.

The two children were twins, but as different in character as winter and summer.

“I read about it in a dream.” She shyly answered him.

“You don’t read dreams dummy!” he retorted.

“Oh but you do Michael-James …” this was grandma who’d been sitting quietly knitting in her rocking chair. “It’s through dreams that we touch upon some of the more beautiful aspects of life.” She recited:

summer sentinels
evergreen's faithful vigil
  spring's resurrection

Writing with Buson (3) - "on the shortcut path" - July 15, 2014

Into our third week of July, Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, introduces the third haiku by Buson!

chikamichi ya mizu fumi wataru satsukiame

on the shortcut path,

stepping through water to cross the meadow
in the summer rains.

© Buson (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)

The Shortcut (Haibun)

Many years ago, we decided to visit my husband's mother who lived in Tuscany.  Usually we'd take the highway to get there but we decided that it would be more interesting to get off the highway at a certain point and take a short cut. This way we reasoned we could avoid having to go all the way to Florence and then cut back to get to the village where she lived.

We got off the highway at Barberino di Mugello.  Once we arrived in that town, we followed directions in order to get to Prato which is near to where his mother lived.  We found ourselves in no time in the middle of a dark forest that ran over and through a mountainous area.  Sometimes the "road" was little more than a gravelled pathway just wide enough for an automobile.  At one point we took a wrong turn and found ourselves at an abandoned farm house and a dead-end.  Of course we had to turn back until we found the right road, half an hour later.

Eventually we did find our way to his mother's village, but we were 5 hours late arriving and his mother was frantic with worry! 

through the Tuscan hills
shortcut through the empty forests
lost in the dark