English Original
steady summer rain ...
an old swayback farmhouse
by the road
Summer Drizzles, 2005
Bruce Ross
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
夏日綿綿細雨 ...
路邊一座老舊的
傾斜農舍
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
夏日绵绵细雨 ...
路边一座老旧的
倾斜农舍
Bio Sketch
Bruce Ross, Ph.D., former president of the HSA, was the editor of anthologies such as the seminal Haiku Moment and, more recently, co-editor of A Vast Sky. He was the founding editor of the online Autumn Moon Haiku Journal, and he authored many collections of haiku and haibun.
ReplyDeleteThis haiku has the quiet, understated appeal of a rural scene observed in passing. Its strength lies in the interplay between the persistence of the rain and the weary, almost human posture of the farmhouse.
L1, “steady summer rain ...,” establishes a gentle, unbroken rhythm. The ellipsis invites us to linger, suggesting rain that has been falling for some time and shows no sign of stopping. There is no urgency here, only the quiet persistence of the weather.
L2, “an old swayback farmhouse,” offers the poem’s most evocative image. “Swayback” is wonderfully expressive, suggesting a roof that has sagged under the weight of years, weather, and perhaps neglect. The word also lends the farmhouse an almost animal or human quality. We might imagine an old farm horse with a drooping back, standing patiently in the rain, too weary to protest. The farmhouse seems to embody that same quiet endurance, its shape bearing witness to the passage of time.
L3, “by the road,” is deceptively simple. The phrase places the farmhouse within a wider landscape, as though it might be glimpsed by travellers passing through the rain. The road introduces a subtle sense of movement, contrasting with the stillness of the house and the steady fall of the rain.
The three lines work together through a quiet interplay of persistence, age, and movement. The rain continues, the farmhouse slowly weathers, and travellers come and go. Each belongs to a different rhythm of time: the rain’s ongoing present, the house’s accumulated years, and the fleeting passage of those on the road. Nothing dramatic occurs, yet the scene carries a gentle poignancy. The farmhouse seems almost to endure the rain alongside us, its weathered form suggesting a life of patient exposure to the elements. The haiku’s appeal lies in this restraint: it allows an ordinary rural scene to evoke time, weariness, and endurance without needing to explain them.