Objective Art/ Melody

[Guest guest]

The old pond,

A frog jumps in-

The sound of the water.

Basho

1.

The old pond,

A straw sandal floating;

Sleet falling.

Busson

 

As evening falls the light ebbs fast,

and the sadness of winter gathers

around the half sunk sandal pelted by the sleet.

 

Busson was born twenty years after Basho's death,

so this haiku could be taken as a variation on Basho's

most famous poem. Yet, busson's, in my opinion,

is just as good. It shows how things ( the old pond in this case)

are never the same. In Basho's Poem the old pond is vibrant

with the inexhaustible energy of Summer, while in Busson's

the old pond incarnates the melancholy of rain in a winter

evening.

 

I took the liberty of translating Busson's haiku slightly different.

The original reads:

 

The old pond,

A straw sandal sunk to the bottom;

Sleet falling.

 

What are these poets telling us?

 

The world is beauty.Don't juststand

there watching. Be it!

 

Pete