Haiku 2: Killed an ant...

Here is today's haiku:

蟻殺すわれを三人の子に見られぬ

And in romaji:

ari korosu ware-o sannin-no ko-ni mi+rarenu

And English: "Killed an ant. Seen! My three children were watching."

This is a haiku by Kato Shuson. The English translation is a bit awkward while the Japanese is so clear and simple: the poem pivots around the ware-o, "me" — the children were watching me. Other translations I've seen add another verb: I see, I realize, etc. But there is no verb like that; it just says, "the children were watching me," but putting the "me" first, which we just cannot do in English. So, I opted for "seen!" in the sense of "I was seen."

I thought this was an important to include because of ahimsa, and all the insects and other living beings we kill, on purpose (as here) or inadvertently. Or the other things we do that we would only do in secret, with no one watching — as if that makes any difference in our action, especially when it is an action we have chosen intentionally.

The saying also reminded me of a brilliant anecdote I read in a Buddhist book recently about a fly in a cup of tea: Cherish Every Being.

art by Hitoshi Kiyohara

My vocabulary for today:

蟻
あり
"ant"