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Hi All:

Today's Per Diem poem is

A wolf;
one firefly clinging to it
                —Kaneko Tohta

This has been acclaimed as a very powerful poem in the Japanese. Does it retain this power in English? What do you think?

j

Hello Jim, thank you for sharing this. I think it depends on our own experience, I live in the country and it is not unusual to see insects and animals together, eg a wasp and a bluetit, horses and flies, so to me it could be mere reportage, but to the japanese who use a lot of symbolism it could be highly significant, we don't have fireflies here, so a little mystery attached to this for me, I imagine them glowing like glow worms but flying. Interesting, I will google to check the symbolism. pleased to see you posting, I guessed perhaps you had been busy. Often these treasured moments with nature can be highly significant on a personal level.
i would think the firefly = illumination enlightenment but still looking for wolf ... maybe learning .. one wolf -- self..or even oneness?
ah, found a reference to wolf as a sacred animal associated with a particular shinto shrine

at one time wrens were sacrificed, this recent ku of mine is also full of symbolism though not japanese, three different symbols... well two, and much symbolism associated with winter solstice

winter solstice -
a wren darts
into the laurel

狼に蛍がひとつ付いていた　　
　
ookami ni
hotaru ga hitotsu
tsuite ita

A wolf;
one firefly clung
to the wolf

http://www.kanekotohta.jp/to%20eiyaku.html

If you count the Japanese, it is 5 7 5 and written in "normal" language, like one  sentence we use in conversation.

on the wolf
one firefly
clung  / hang / stuck   (verb in past tense)

Gabi (on the formal aspect of this)

.

Hello, Jim,

Reading in translation is always dicey, IMHO -- I'm forever wondering exactly what the nuances were in the original language.

That said, I like the fierce-and-delicate dichotomy in this haiku, but I don't know as "powerful" would be among my descriptors for it.  I rather expect "powerful" to knock my socks off with a stunning and absolutely apt juxtaposition or imagery expressed in a fresh and original way, and I did not get that here.  Lost in translation?  I honestly don't know what to think.

cat

"This has been acclaimed as a very powerful poem in the Japanese. Does it retain this power in English? What do you think?"

I think, "Not really." I can feel my way into this ku a little  by switching species, eg

A thylacine;
one corroboree frog clinging to it

What does a thylacine and a Japanese wolf have in common? Both are extinct.  What does a Japanese firefly and a corroboree frog have in common? They are both endangered species, and the respective nations each have breeding programs going to prevent their extinction.

Then I can try to feel my way a little further by checking the words 'wolf' and 'dragonfly' as kigo,
how the words might function as code words, and yes, 'dragonfly ' is early Summer and 'wolf' is 'all Winter'. But how far does that get me in understanding the ku?

I'd say that Kaneko Tohta's ku relies on the reader's knowledge of both Japanese social history and literary history... and the mythology and symbolism shared by both. I think it's difficult for English-speakers in countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the USA (at least) to comprehend the extent to which the historical past is kept alive in Japan and with it the sense of a national identity shared by all. Even the daily and weekly newspapers keep it alive!

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fq20080613a1.html

So the Genji (big firefly - genji-botaru) clan defeated the Heike  (smaller firefly - heike-botaru) clan in the 12th-century. The Japanese wolf ( as extinct as the thylacine, but like the thylacine reports of 'sightings' crop up now and then) :


"In Japan, grain farmers once worshiped wolves at shrines and left food offerings near their dens, beseeching them to protect their crops from wild boars and deer. Talismans and charms adorned with images of wolves were thought to protect against fire, disease, and other calamities and brought fertility to agrarian communities and to couples hoping to have children. The Ainu people believed that they were born from the union of a wolflike creature and a goddess.[10]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolves_in_folklore,_religion_and_mythology

There is extensive information about the Japanese wolf on Gabi Greve's data base blogs:

http://worldkigo2005.blogspot.com/2006/11/wolf-ookami.html

But who could know, apart from a Japanese person, a scholar of Japanese history, mythology and folklore, or a 'gaijin' living in Japan, what this ku is about without the effort of extensive research? Who knows, from all of the Japanese symbology attached to 'wolf' and 'firefly', what this ku refers to, apart from a general sense that it refers to Japan, past and present? (I will have to reread Barthes' Empire of Signs.)

I think that the poem gathers its power in Japan from a shared culture, one which I can only graze the surface of. But I have suspicion that this poem might be a comment and critique on some aspects of that shared culture, from Kaneko Tohta's '21st century' point of view.

--


clouds gathering thylacine rumours from the mountain

- Lorin

...another translation:

ookami-ni hotaru-ga hitotsu tsuite ita

on the wolf
a firefly
attached itself

(Translated by Dhugal J.Lindsay)


http://www.haiku-hia.com/rireki_tohta_en.html

- Lorin

No.

Next.

There are more haiku with the ookami wolf by Tohta sensei.
I remember him once talking about a different haiku about an ookami coming down the mounain, which was his rendering of a large man he saw running down ...


　　　おおかみに蛍が一つ付いていた (this is the firefly one)

　　　おおかみが蚕飼の村を歩いていた (a wolf walked in a village where they keep silkworms)

　　　おおかみに目合(まぐわい)の家の人声(ひとごえ)

　　　おおかみを龍神(りゅうがみ)と呼ぶ山の民 (villagers call the wolf the "dragon god")

　狼に転がり墜ちた岩の音

　　　狼生く無時間を生きて咆吼

　狼の往き来檀(まゆみ)の木のあたり

　　　狼墜つ落下速度は測り知れぬ

　　　狼や緑泥片岩に亡骸(なきがら)


http://www.kanekotohta.jp/to%20kusyu%20tougokusyu.html


I will check more later, not got to run to a busy day.
Gabi

.

Quote from: Gabi Greve on February 12, 2011, 05:41:46 PM
There are more haiku with the ookami wolf by Tohta sensei.
I remember him once talking about an ookami coming down the mounain, which was his rendering of a large man he saw running down ...


　　　おおかみが蚕飼の村を歩いていた (a wolf walked in a village where they keep silkworms)

　　
Gabi

.

I was about to say that perhaps one should be guided by what Tohta says about Basho's 'old pond' haiku, and that perhaps it's barking up the wrong tree to infer 'hidden meanings':

"By the way, foreigners usually look at the old pond in the poem very philosophically. I don't agree. The old pond is muddy, filled with algae, the water in it hardly ever moving. Not clear, it reflects the sunshine, and there are bugs jumping in it. That is what the "old pond" is like. I insist that with such an old pond, I can hear the splash of a frog. It jumped in somewhere. When I hear this sound, I imagine the old pond. The combination of these two - the old pond and the sound made by the splash - forms the world of the haiku. After this, each reader receives his own image."

http://www.haiku-hia.com/tohta_k_en.html


But if this one of his refers, as Gabi says it does, to  "a large man he saw running down. . ."

おおかみが蚕飼の村を歩いていた (a wolf walked in a village where they keep silkworms)

... then out goes that idea! If a wolf can be '"a large man" that he saw, then a firefly can be either of those Japanese clans who were hacking each other up in medieval times, ala Macbeth or rather Holinshed's Chronicles, or it can be simply a real firefly on a man's sleeve, hand, hair, hat or wherever.

If it works on the level of 'language poetry' in Japanese, then translations become impossible, I'd imagine.

--     
thylacine barking up the wrong genus


- Lorin

I read haiku collections and haiku journals for the immediate enjoyment I get from the poems.
Some mean more to me than others because of personal experience or knowledge of the subject treated.  Often I read haiku that are beyond my ken because of unfamiliarity with the experience and or the subject and require an explanation, either by the author or by checking references.  Without knowing the historical and cultural references for wolf and firefly, this haiku, on the surface level,  doesn't leave me with any powerful impression, just a question:
How close was the poet to the wolf to see the firefly?

Adelaide

Quote from: Adelaide on February 12, 2011, 06:13:09 PM
just a question:
How close was the poet to the wolf to see the firefly?

Adelaide

:D ...ha, Adelaide.

After Gabi's post, I strongly suspect that Jim's "wolf in firefly's clothing" has much to do with it all.

If "a large man running down..." can metamorphose into an extinct wolf in Tohta's ku, then a firefly can metamorphose into Red Riding Hood, or anything or anyone the reader projects into the ku. The poet himself might be the 'wolf' and and a nubile new member to the haiku group might be the 'firefly', in which case Tohta might've got a very good close look at the 'firefly' indeed.

Who knows?


- Lorin

.
Your gaijin detective reporting from Japan (it is my lunchbreak ...)

Amazing how many comments to this haiku I found on Japanese websites.

Anyway

Sensei introduced this haiku in the famous national haiku TV, NHK HAIKU on July 2009, with the following short comment:

I was born in Chichibu. There used to be wolves in the area a long time ago.
And they have been the subject of religious belief, like deities.

Here is one wolf of Chichibu

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BYBLTyep3K4/TVc33zyUz_I/AAAAAAAAXkU/bos-sK709nI/s400/mitsumine%2Bookami.jpg)

Like a komainu statue in front of Mitsumine shrine, the most famous in Chichibu.

So maybe he wrote about a real firefly on a stone statue wolf ? ???

Or he identifies himself with the wolf and the firefly is sitting on him? Quite possible if you live in the area.

(I once spent a night at a famous firefly river in Chichibu, they would sit on us humans without being shy  ... )

Off to more checking, this is fun.

Gabi

More is here now
http://wkdhaikutopics.blogspot.com/2011/02/kaneko-tohta-wolf-haiku.html

.
Tohta sensei also features a haiku group called WOLF
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1zk9jMvmJlc/TVdkWNSThTI/AAAAAAAAXks/k2pY5xWCrmA/s400/wolf%2Bkukai%2Bkaneko.jpg)

.

'...to refute the Kuwabara thesis via their own haiku compositions, young haiku poets gathered together and founded the magazine Kaze (Wind). The most notable member of this magazine was Kaneko Tohta, who became the principal leader of the postwar gendai haiku movement. In 1948, the New Rising Haiku poets also founded Tenrô (Wolf of Heaven).' ---New Rising Haiku, The Evolution of Modern Japanese Haiku and the Haiku Persecution Incident, by Itô Yûki

http://www.simplyhaiku.com/SHv5n4/features/Ito.html

An excerpt from http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa022603a.htm:

In Japan, fireflies are also thought to be the souls of dead soldiers ... and are a metaphor for passionate love

Which doesn't illuminate much more, just adds another question.

This from Wikipedia in an entry on the anime film Grave of the Fireflies (火垂るの墓, Hotaru no Haka:

Mature fireflies which emit light have extremely short life spans of two to three weeks and are traditionally regarded as a symbol of impermanence, which resonates with much of classical Japanese tradition (as with cherry blossoms). Fireflies are also symbolic of the human soul ("Hitodama"), which is depicted as a floating, flickering fireball. Heikebotaru (平家蛍, Luciola lateralis), a species of firefly that exist in the Western region of Japan, is so-called because people considered their lights, hovering near rivers and lakes, to be the souls of the Heike family, all of whose members perished in a famous historic naval engagement - the Battle of Dan-no-ura.

I guess among all this symbolism there's an intersection between wolf and firefly ... but it's not obvious and if we didn't have Google, we wouldn't have got this far.

The moral I'm drawing is that all haiku may be translated from whatever to whatever but that doesn't necessarily help unerstanding.

So I would say, no, this haiku doesn not retain its power in English.

The new data you gathered today is intereting Gabi. You state that the main kigo is firefly and the secondary kigo is wolf. Can you tell us the process by which you arrived at this conclusion? I can't work it out.

"on the wolf
one firefly
clung / hang / stuck (verb in past tense)

Main kigo:
. WKD : Firelfy (hotaru) 　

Secondary kigo:
. WKD : Wolf (ookami) 　"

---

WOLF haiku by Tohta sensei,
on his own homepage　

"And then one day came the wolf haiku.
In Chichibu there are still many legends about wolves. In many shrines are stone images of wolves. Wolves are extinct in Japan, but they are still alive (in the memories of people). Especially inside myself, they still live in their original wild form."

- trans: Gabi Greve

http://wkdhaikutopics.blogspot.com/2011/02/kaneko-tohta-wolf-haiku.html

.. I might now attempt to revive my thylacine ku drafts (which didn't go down at all well a few years ago) using Tohta's argument as a precedent. Wish me luck!

Last thylacine died 1936:

http://www.mithmeoi.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/thylacine23.jpg

- Lorin



　

It says in the Japanese reference,  about the use of kigo.
You can also decuct it from the grammar

ookami ni
hotaru ga hitotsu
tsuite ita


hotaru GA
ookami NI

But never mind, that would lead too far into language explanation.
(Maybe you start some online lessons for Japanese ? )

Gabi

On a tangent or two or may segue:

I also wonder if the original sightings of fireflies and wolves gave substance to the concept of firefoxes?

Secondly I'd be mor interested in why Tohta Kaneko's C word haiku was so important. I've only spotted it in English/Japanese once on the Internet and can't locate it again.

Is that haiku so important because it dispelled the myth amongst the Japanese populace at large that haiku isn't fluffy nature or fluffy kitten land.

A lot of hobby haiku in Japan is like the equivalent of Westerners being Victorianesque I believe.

Alan

If I had had a dream in which I experienced a wolf and a firefly, I would think it a very powerful dream indeed, and a gift, though I may be assuming too much. Insofar as how one apprehends a dream may be helpful in looking at a poem like this, it is the atmosphere with which an image is imbued that is telling (and untellable). And atmosphere will be imbued with feeling. We know, I suppose, that the appreciation of any haiku worth its salt, requires a slowing down, or a suspension of such things as reason and the need to know or be certain. A poem like this may require something additional, crossing a threshold into an altered, or atmospheric state. It requires, for one, entering the darkness of night, or else the firefly is not visible. In that place, perhaps, a wolf is of the darkness: the night is its substance. How can I say that? Because I see by the light of a firefly.

A wolf;
one firefly clinging to it
                —Kaneko Tohta

I believe this poem is a direct reference to the author himself.  The wolf has been extinct in Japan for a long time.  Unless he is reminiscing something of a personal experience (I highly doubt), then the poem is one of self reflection (spiritually) or fantasy.  I prefer to ponder the idea that the poet is self reflecting ... seeing himself as the wolf (on the brink of extinction/death) and referencing his spirit clinging to his own life and guiding the way.  The spiritual importance of the firefly cannot be ignored here but the use of it in conjunction of the wolf is superbly more powerful.  Another aspect that imparts a huge hint as to the poets mindset/intent is the use of just "one firely".  This poem could have easily read "fireflies cling to it" ... etc.  Being so specific as to one firefly is an example of craftsmanship, intent and the possible self reference to Tohta himself.

Don

Quote from: Jim Kacian on February 12, 2011, 01:09:23 PM
Hi All:

Today's Per Diem poem is

A wolf;
one firefly clinging to it
                —Kaneko Tohta

This has been acclaimed as a very powerful poem in the Japanese. Does it retain this power in English? What do you think?

j

Jim,
I'd be interested to know why this poem has been acclaimed as a very powerful poem in the Japanese, who has acclaimed it and what they said in support of their acclamation. I suspect there are several layers, and perhaps it's also technically an admirable poem in Japanese, but of course I can only guess.

Thanks, Gabi, for your response...ok, the main season is indicated in the grammar...that's enough for me.  8) (So late in my life & so much to learn, learning Japanese isn't one of the priorities. ) Might I ask you one more thing? I imagine 'firefly' is one of the older kigo that has a hon'i embedded in it: can you tell us about this hon'i?

- Lorin

Firefly
http://worldkigo2005.blogspot.com/2005/06/fireflies-hotaru-05.html

Sorry, no time for more, we are just fighting a day of snow and the night to come will be more snow ...


One clue :

If someone were to make a haiga of this poem, where would you place the ONE firefly,
the one spark in the life of an ageing "wolf" ?

btw, we have "personification" , but what if a human compares himself to animals,
is that "animalification" ?

Tohta sensei is one of the best-loved haiku personalities in Japan, entertaining us all for years with regular TV appearances, talking freely about his life and his "wild" side (yasei).
I guess that is one reason why the poem is so famous in Japan.

http://wkdhaikutopics.blogspot.com/2007/03/kaneko-tohta.html

Gabi

Gabi said:

Quote from: Gabi Greve on February 14, 2011, 01:18:08 AM

SNIP

One clue :

If someone were to make a haiga of this poem, where would you place the ONE firefly,
the one spark in the life of an ageing "wolf" ?

SNIP

Gabi

Kuniharu Shimizu has already done this. ;-)

Alan

aaa Alan , why spoil the fun ???



well, Kuniharu sensei shared his work with the WKD
http://wkdhaikutopics.blogspot.com/2011/02/kaneko-tohta-wolf-haiku.html


Don't peek before you have made up your own image !

Gabi




.

well, I haven't seen anyone's haiga on this, and rather than looking it up, Gabi, I can tell you where I imagined the firefly when I read the poem.

I saw it clinging to the wolf's tail. Why, I don't know...maybe because the wolf is extinct, but still has some sort of presence in people's minds, like the thylacine, and the firefly is endangered in Japan and would be gone too, if both the government and private enthusiasts didn't breed and release them.

Very sad to know those little island wolves are extinct, and the means by which this was achieved. My dog (I could never bring myself to have another dog) when I was a kid was poisoned with a strychnine bait.

I'll look at the links, see if I can find the hon'i.

Nope, still can't find the hon'i, 'essence' or the like, though I appreciate the additions you made to the firefly page. I understand that it has a lot of associations in Japan, but can't find anything equivalent to 'the joyfulness of Spring' or the like, the 'code' part.


ps... I'm not in facebook, so someone will have to tell me about the haiga.  8)
- Lorin

A parody to demonstrate

alight
on a mountain wolf --
a rednecked bug

Without both the cultural and current history of Kaneko Tohta's poem, much would be lost to many readers.

old pond:
a Thoreau'n
frog

PONDer this?

(Deepest respect to all authors referenced).

alight
on a mountain wolf --
a rednecked bug

ok, thanks, I think I get the picture... Tohta's poem is about Tohta?

Yours is funny, Dennis.  :) A good parody, if it's on the right track...& I suspect that it is.

(ps...you don't need the 'proper grammar' in yours. I believe the expression is just 'redneck'?...'redneck bug', lose the '-ed' for authenticity/ plausibility. )

- Lorin

Lorin...  I think, that's the original translation to English, "red-necked" bug/insect.

http://books.google.com/books?id=z460V-B1HrYC&pg=PA95&lpg=PA95&dq=Basho+firefly+haiku&source=bl&ots=zWpomkOtVQ&sig=fY_bllNBkZfDeVWsT_xp4DYrUuI&hl=en&ei=I19bTcSQAoHMgQf_gK2iDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Basho%20firefly%20haiku&f=false

This is the google link I found.

ooops... ok, Dennis, I've looked at the translation you provided...'red-necked insect'. It's not clear to me who the translator for that one is.

;D 'redneck[ed] bug' takes it to a whole different place! Interesting variation, though. 8)

- Lorin

Hi, Jim.

Can you recommend some sources that discuss its power for the Japanese?

It feels powerful to me, but I cannot articulate why. Something about the juxtaposition between solitariness and calling out—but very quiet and in the way of things. And the combination of two ways of being intense: with physical strength and speed and with luminescence and flashiness. And the incredible rarity of the poet getting to witness this unlikely and beautiful pairing.

I know nothing of its symbolism to the Japanese, and doubt that symbolism is really why they perceive it as powerful. I also doubt that the wolf's potential extinction came into play when it was first written, though it certainly adds poignancy for present-day readers.

Thanks,

Mary

Hi Jim,
  a belated hello,belated reply. Many persons being global travelers, able to hike the American rockies or anywhere where wolves still exist, may have encountered a lone wolf. At first I thought this as powerful as Basho's " a crow has perched" ku. the wolf in its dark world has a firefly cling to it. but then I learned this could possibly be a second hand moment--desktop about an unfortunate extinct animal. Therefore,
I would wish the poet to invoke a more honest approach:

my dream:
on the wolf
a firefly clings



or if it is a statue:


on a stone wolf
a firefly clings
then moves on...


better for the firefly to pick a living creature of flesh and blood now than to attach itself to celebrity or extinct mammal. I've read that one specie of firefly lure other fireflies to their death by a mimic of a certain light that attract males looking to mate--then chomp--the unsentimental end and dinner for the trickster.
   Nature is what it is. I find the sketch from life avoids celebrity-facade or self-identification. Every poet is a local poet ruled over by nature rather than by mind. Put me in the Basho or Shiki camp where
haiku refer to world rather than to ego. Not that you can't write subjectively with certain thoughts about history or things no longer--just that I don't want to rely on biographical knowledge, a country of myths. Associations without season words or location usually wind up senryu or parody. enjoyed this thread, paul cordeiro

For sure Paul Cordeiro is entitled to his preference for one approach to haiku. However, I find nothing dishonest about Kaneko Tohta's poem.

hi Jim,
  In answer to your question, I would say the poem is powerful. Of itself, I only have a wolf, which
may roam at night to hunt and possibly in packs--and the equally strong firefly that clings to the wolf.
Both singularities are so naturally combined as phenomena.
   What disappointed is to hear that this was an imaginary wolf possibly and a scene that the poet only
desktopped or used in his imagination. of course, he is entitled to his method of creation but nonetheless
it weakens the experience for me knowing that this isn't an actual moment the sensei came across in the woods or a field. Just a simple take: don't like desktop haiku much. Just my preference for masterwork
that fly on a walk rather from the seat of ones pants. I was fooled. cheers, paul cordeiro

from the seat of ones pants. I was fooled.
cheers, paul cordeiro

Hi Paul, I think this wolf comes right from the "seat of his pants".  :)

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1uR1Yatjpa4/TVoyRXjioyI/AAAAAAAAXmM/sBLCfn-zYd0/s400/Wolf%2BKaneko.jpg)

He was still quite "acitve" until old age, as I remember him saying, and this haiku is about himself.

Gabi

Thanks for posting the haiga, Gabi. I had pretty much pictured the firefly where it is depicted in the picture, but instead of on its leg, further up on on the wolf's side, as if it had picked it up when lying down in a meadow.

Hi Jim and All,
  enjoyed Gabi's link to the pic. But without the sensei's own comments would anyone have a clue that the subject of this haiku was the author himself? The haiku is stated objectively and without any self-referential clues. Personally, I don't read anything into a poem that is not there. The author didn't
write:

    I am the wolf

or

  The wolf
  is me.

Perhaps Gabi could say if the Japanese look for something other than reality between phenomena in
their ku? A philosophical or other clue that lies behind the mere objective words.

 
  I am afraid that the allusion to the author being a wolf in a haiku would be missed by anyone used to poems refering to the world rather than to something other than what the words actually say. It seems a sly game this wolf in sheep's clothing gambit.

    It would be like me writing the word sheep, and you knowing that Cordeiro means young ram, little lamb, or someone who was a Shepherd. You would have to know Portuguese to understand where the allusion would come from as translation, and that everytime I use that sheep in a poem that it would mean I am alluding to myself rather than an actual breathing sheep.
   just my take, paul

I partly agree with Paul, although a poem stating: A wolf followed by the colon could be recognised as metaphor by a non-haikai poet, as other poets tend to contantly write and search for metaphors.

Alan

Alan,

That's an interesting point.  The colon does add light to the resonance of the poem (metaphor). I wonder what indicators there are in Japanese?

... a growing and interesting thread ...

Don

hi Folks,
   then like Alan said, if I am hearing him correctly, the ; stands in for a kireji which means something more
in Japanese than it does in English. In English, the semi-colon would link "the wolf" to the next phrase
as being separate but somehow the second phenomena would correspond in some way. I was unaware of
a colon signifying metaphor. I used to use it widely--having put a ; in lin1 or in the middle of L2 to create a pause and to link the first phrase and the second phrase as equal corresponding phenomena. My examples
from Modern Haiku:

      she waves goodbye;
      the autumn moon, the crickets
      are all one voice


      resort umbrellas
      folded in the rain; a swan
      slips beak under wing


Does anyone know why this practice of semi-colon usage has fallen out of favor with many haiku
poets? Many ku have breath units shorter than these nowadays.

      Paul Cordeiro

狼に蛍がひとつ付いていた　　
　
ookami ni
hotaru ga hitotsu
tsuite ita

ookami ni hotaru ga hitotsu tsuite ita

The Japanese does not have a kireji anywhere ...  it is in fact just one sentence ...

As you will realize from this, translators have a way of "interpreting" things for their readers ...
The whole discussion about semicolon and metaphor does not apply to the original haiku.

here

on the wolf
a firefly
attached itself

http://www.haiku-hia.com/rireki_tohta_en.html


Gabi

Hi All,
  like Gabi's one breath unit translation or should we also say complete sentence. so much for two phrases
and the ; idea. Thanks Gabi for setting us straight.
   The poem reads objectively unless someone can shed light on a self-referential thought in its wording. Otherwise, the wolf association attached to the author only appears outside the context of the poem-- if you know the poet's inclination to identify with wolf or overheard his prose statements. The poem itself seems to read as if the poet saw the wolf and the attached firefly in a moment. The firefly is the aha moment where a special something happens. The firefly seems of brief and lasting importance.
   If I am wrong on this, does the wolf association arise from reader understanding based on prior knowledge of a history of haiku poetics(posssibly not practiced outside of Japan) or is the conclusion reached from some other source. Do certain haijin always associate themselves with native specie as a matter of course? I'm speculating simply because, except for some limited knowledge of kigo, I have no
idea about an allusion that illicits from a reader this response when the ku appears straighforward and objective. Does the pic cause the layered connection?
   Once again, I defer to Gabi or other knowledgeable haijin aware of haiku practice in Japan. cheers, paul

"If I am wrong on this, does the wolf association arise from reader understanding based on prior knowledge of a history of haiku poetics(posssibly not practiced outside of Japan)..." Paul

Paul, I would say, though Gabi explicitly denies it,

"The whole discussion about . . . metaphor does not apply to the original haiku." - Gabi

that this haiku does rely on metaphor. . . metaphor in the broad sense of 'verbal metaphor' or trope. . . and also that to 'get' the trope a reader would need to be familiar, not with the history of Japanese poetics so much as the history of Japan itself, and the romanticized history of Japan at that.

(There's no hint here, that I can see, of the fact that the little Japanese wolves are extinct because the last of them were poisoned with strychnine bait, government approved, despite the fact that there are shrines and statues etc abounding. That should be enough, in itself, to show that the wolf in this haiku is not a real wolf but a symbol of something more important to the Japanese than the real wolves. )

Both 'wolf' and 'firefly' are richly metaphorical in Japan. I'll have a stab at it and say that this haiku probably relies on the kind of trope or verbal metaphor that we usually call metonym, but it could just as well be mixed metaphor, including both metonym and personification as well as alluding to the 'history' or the literary history of Japan. I think we need to remember that 'metaphor' is actually a continuum, including metonym, literal symbol, pun, personification, certain types of allusion... any means by which words come to connote something other than or as well as what they denote.

ie...it ain't 'shasei' ;-) anymore than if I were to write a ku about an emu with its head buried in the sand, or even the dreaming.

That Kaneko Tohta is associated with journal titled 'Wolf' ( see Gabi's blog) and the quotes from the author himself on the same page indicates that the haiku is intended to be metaphorical and that an educated Japanese audience could be expected to 'get' it. For non-Japanese, it seems to need a lot of explanation if we are to read it as anything but a noted observation, however it's translated. It probably needs, for a non-Japanese audience, as lengthy footnotes as the whole of Eliot's The Wasteland.

"Kaneko Tohta comments:
I was born in Chichibu. There used to be wolves in the area a long time ago. And they have been the subject of religious belief, like deities."

"In Chichibu there are still many legends about wolves. In many shrines are stone images of wolves. Wolves are extinct in Japan, but they are still alive (in the memories of people). Especially inside myself, they still live in their original wild form."

http://wkdhaikutopics.blogspot.com/2011/02/kaneko-tohta-wolf-haiku.html


- Lorin

also, and although Lorin alludes to this, I think it's worth emphasizing: In Japan, where haiku is more popular that in other countries, Kaneko Tohta is a public figure. His haiku is taught in the schools, he appears on television, etc. He was an integral figure in the artistic reimagining of his country in the postwar period. As such, he can rely on his audience's familiarity with his history, and theirs, in a way that most of us could not.

Whether that's good or bad is a discussion we can thrash out. When it comes to understanding this particular poem, imo, this particular poet's relationship to his primary readership can't be ignored.


[small edit to correct a mispelling]

Hi folks,
  Thank you Lorin and Mark for the detailed explanation of poetry practice and understanding of the circumstances--the playing field (so to speak) in which the poem resonates in Japan. It seemed that the ku's power has to exist in a realm where the reader has information given(outside of the poem) that wouldn't be available to someone unfamiliar with the culture or confusing perhaps to an outsider peeking in.
   appreciate the follow-up, paul cordeiro
   
   
   don't worry
   horsefly
   I've read Issa
   

"u" can make a difference housefly or horsefly: Issa's spiders

firefly in the web... in the spider (I've wondered if a spider eats a firefly where the glow goes?!)

idle minds...
the haijin's
playground

@Chibi:

"I've wondered if a spider eats a firefly where the glow goes?"~chibi

This kind of thinking hurts my brain!  LOL   :o

best to you,

Don

Quote"I've wondered if a spider eats a firefly where the glow goes?"~chibi

Whoa!

i find this ku by Tohta to be incredibly fresh and enchanting. For me it has controlled intensity, simplicity, mystery, a balance of the dangerous/sinister and lightness/the ephemeral. It's an engaging image that invites the imagination, invites contemplation, and invites discussion on intertextuality and the vertical axis.

I like that it utilizes the firefly in a totally fresh way, instead of so much of the saccharine/Hallmark poems (oh isn't the firefly so *pretty*!) we normally see using the firefly/fireflies.

Of course it could be read metaphorically, as mentioned by others, instead of reading it in a hyper-literal way (far too often done unfortunately), or imaginatively as a creation/reflection of emotions and situation, or in the context of the "vertical axis" in which it would connect with mythologies, literature and culture (which Tohta himself revealed to be true). I think it is the mythological element (or the implied mythological element) that grabs me most about it. The mysteriousness of the way in which the images are combined; that they become something new. The ku feels like a kind of new mythology that is being shown. For me that is powerful and comes across in the English versions of it.

And so this one, for me, has great depth. It connects to so many things all at once (or: the *possibility* of connecting to so many things at once, not just a singular reading), to both the vertical and horizontal axes, with minimalism and freshness.

Also, this Tohta ku *strongly* reminds me of (or reminded me of when i first read it) Bashō's:

pine mushroom—
some kind of leaf
sticking to it

(The Essential Haiku/R. Hass)


mushroom—
from some unknown tree, a leaf
sticking on it

(tr by Makoto Ueda)

matsudake ya shiranu ki no ha no hebaritsuka