Sunday, September 8, 2013

Butterfly Dream: Basho's Frog Haiku by Al Fogel

English Original

Basho's frog ...
four hundred years
of ripples

So Little Time

Al Fogel


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

芭蕉的青蛙 ...
400年以來
的漣漪

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

芭蕉的青蛙 ...
400年以来
的涟漪


Bio Sketch

Al Fogel , 68, began his haiku journey about 3 years ago and has been writing haiku, senryu, tanka and haibun ever since. Some of his work has appeared in leading haijin journals around the globe. He has recently published two books: So Little Time and  Holding Hand-helds: Senryu for the Cyber

3 comments:

  1. Commentary by Jane Reichhold from Favorite Haiku..New Zealand Poetry
    Society:

    At first the idea of picking only 10 of my favorite haiku seemed a rather
    daunting task. How could I review all the haiku I have read in my life and
    decide that there were only 10 that were outstanding? Then realized I was
    already getting a steady stream of excellent haiku day by day through the AHA
    forum.

    The puns and write-offs based on Basho's most famous haiku are so
    numerous I would have said that nothing new could be said with this
    method, but here Al Fogel proved me wrong. Perhaps part of my delight in
    this haiku lies in the fact that I agree with him. Here he is saying one thing
    about realism–ripples are on a pond after a frog jumps in, but because it
    refers back to Basho and his famous haiku, he is also saying something
    about the haiku and authors who have followed him. We, and our work,
    are just ripples while Basho holds the honor of inventing the idea of "the
    sound of a frog leaping is the sound of water".

    As haiku spreads around the world, making ripples in more and larger
    ponds, its ripples are wider–including us all. But his last word reminds us
    all that we are only ripples and our lives are that ephemeral. It will be the
    frogs that will remain.


    ReplyDelete
  2. Ripples are not only on the pond but also in the minds of poets.

    Basho's frog
    jumps in an old pond
    no sound heard
    yet it ripples
    in the minds of poets

    ReplyDelete
  3. Frog shorties from Ed Baker


    far beyond moon frog leaps

    far beyond frog moon leaps


    so many frogs
    in one pond
    croaking


    Many thanks to Ed.

    ReplyDelete