Censored Haiku
this one talks about
[ ] and [ ] and the
dark [ ] at [ ] [ ]
the first chill breeze like
a refresher on the truth
but [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
all this [ ][ ][ ]
[ ] is [ ] [ ] end up
armies [ ] [ ] [ ]
yesterday we [ ]
[ ] dawn [ ] [ ] [ ] heavy
fog [ ] [ ] semis
[ ] is our [ ]
calling said [ ] [ ] [ ]
oracle [ ] [ ]
the [ ] peeling
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] black hole
[ ] [ ]
[ ] darkness [ ]
[ ] [ ] [ ] despots
naming [ ] [ ] [ ]
censoring haiku
because censoring all of
the implications
the oaks [ ] [ ]
witness [ ] [ ] haiku [ ]
[ ] [ ] distress [ ]
genocide [ ] [ ]
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] ceaseless
[ ]
the antichrist [ ]
[ ] identified [ ] [ ]
[ ] [ ] [ ]
I don’t [ ] if I
[ ] [ ] on [ ] [ ]
[ ] [ ] [ ]right [ ]
censoring [ ]
[ ] censoring [ ] [ ]
[ ] [ ]
Selected Haiku by Bashō in Which Some Words Are Replaced with Notes from J. S.
Bach’s Orchestral Suite #3 in D Major, BWV 1068, II. Aria
522
shizukasa ya
iwa ni shimi iru
semi no koe
a louder ♪♫
by reason ♩ cicadas
on the mountain face
394
chichi haha no
shikirini koishi
kiji no koe
motherfather ♬
never so unlost as in
the pheasant’s ♪♩♪
948
kiku no nochi
daikon no hoka
sara ni nashi
after ♫♪♩♫♪♬♩
nothing no nothing at all
but stale ♪♫♪
788
toshi doshi ya
saru ni kisetaru
saru no men
yes year after ♩
on the monkey’s face the mask
of a monkey’s ♪♫
515
natsu kusa ya
tsuwamono domo ga
yume no ato
parched ♬♪♩♫♪
for the slain warriors ♩♪
heir ♫♪♩♪♬♪♩
363
jōroku ni
kagerō takashi
ishi no ue
sixteen ♪♬♪♩♪
feet of being and non-being
above the ♩♪
173
chō yo chō yo
morokoshi no
haikai towan
you two ♫♪♩♪♬♪
let me ask again ♪♩
the Taoist ♩♪♫
751
uo tori no
kokoro wa shirazu
toshi wasure
heart of ♪♩ nor fish
know you nothing ♬♪♩
when year-forgetting
980
ume ga ka ya
mi nu yo no hito ni
gyoi o uru
above all the ♪♫
and its plum blossom ♩♪♬
unmet ♫♪♩♪♬♪
628
tsuma koute
nezasa kazuku ya
——————
wife-abandoned
I burrowed ♪♩ the field
. . .
793
tōki yori
aware wa tsuka no
sumire-gusa
the ♬♪♩♫♪ herbs
grow lavender on the ♪♫
where we buried ♩♪
560
mono kaite
ōgi hikisaku
nagori kana
in leaving ♪♩♪ was
nothing to write my ♫♪ upon
but the old torn ♩♪♬
Note:
*I arrived at my selections by meandering without a specific agenda. Like Bashō on his travels. *I have included no title here, though Bashō occasionally employs them. *I kept to the meter, even if it meant bending the implication slightly. *Polysemy is a great virtue of the haiku, which probably cannot be understood in English, nor, especially, without the presence of kanji. *It’s not about whether it’s accurate, it’s a record of the moment; it’s not about the form, it’s a record of the moment; it’s not about the other translations, many of which are profound, it’s a record of the moment. *The numbering conventions with the haiku here follow Fitzsimmons, the best modern translator of Bashō into English. *The composition by Bach, from which these notes are derived, is here in the piano transcription. *I am also gripped by the last (arguable) unfinished (arguable) fugue from Die Kunst der Fugue: “Contrapunctus XIV or Fuga a 3 Soggetti.”
(Image: Cy Twombly’s Untitled (1966))
