Friday, May 13, 2005

Three Haiku by Ryokan (1758-1831)



The thief left it behind -
The moon
At the window.

Counting days is like snapping
One's fingers -
Every May passes like a dream.

Have you forgotten the way to my hut?
Every evening I wait for the sound of your footsteps
But you do not appear.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

woof

Gabi Greve said...

I like your ryokan haiku !

I made a LINK for my friends to find you.

SHOKAI

Enjoy your Zen and Haiku life !

GABI from Japan

with more about Ryookan here:
. DARUMA Museum, Japan .

Wu jing said...

Hello, i was watching a show "Heroes" and a character said this
Haiku

The theif left it behind
the moon at my window
even if everything else is lost
we will always have our love
No theif, No illness...

can ever take that away.

Does anyone know who it is by?

D to the power of 5 said...

I would guess it is merely Hollywood's take on the original words. In essence the thief left many things like love, happiness, but people would not understand the entire concept, much less the few words of the poem, so the writers probably decided to expound so the audience would get it more clearly. They are masters of making much from nothing; the word "hello" can become a series for them, using not many more words but when needed, they can use too many. Look at your source. It is a TV show made for profit, created by Hollywood, and someone (like me) knew the poem but had to give it context and explanation.

Santoka said...

Bingo, Hollywood will "correct" and "improve" what the masters wrote hundreds of years ago.

Jeanlou said...

Or perhaps just adapt to present times and cultural context, to facilitate readers' comprehension…