wave after wave
taking back
the empty shell
First Place, 2001 HEA International Contest
Marian Olson
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
一波海浪又一波
收回
一個空殼
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
一波海浪又一波
收回
一個空殼
Bio Sketch
Marian
Olson, non-fiction writer and widely published international poet, was
the author of nine books of poetry, including the award winning haiku in
Songs of the Chicken Yard, Desert Hours, Consider This, and Moondance. Published in 2017, The Other and Kaleidoscope were her first books of tanka.
This is a fine example of ichibutsu shitate:
ReplyDelete... Kyorai argues that, although combining different topics are important, “it [doesn’t] take precedence over other techniques and that Basho also [composes] ‘single-object’ (ichibutsu shitate) poem, which [focuses] on a single topic and in which the hokku [flows] smoothly from start to finish, without the leap or gap found in the composition poem" (Ibid., p. 111)...
... The Master said: “A hokku that moves smoothly from the opening five syllables to the end is a superb verse.”
Shado remarked: “The Master once told me, ‘The hokku is not, as you believe, something that brings together two or three different things. Compose the hokku so that it flows like gold being hit and flattened by a hammer …”
Kyorai: “If a poet composes by combining separate things, he can compose many verses and compose them quickly. Beginning poets should know this. But when one becomes an accomplished poet, it is no longer a question of combining or not combining …” (Ibid., p. 111)...
-- excerpted from my "To the Lighthouse" post, "Ichibutsu Shitate (One-Image/Object/Topic Haiku)," accessed at http://neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.com/2015/01/to-lighthouse-ichibutsu-shitate-one.html
And the visually evocative and symbolic rich image of sea waves ebbing over the empty shell adds analogical significance to the haiku.