落花枝にかへると見れば胡蝶哉
And in romaji:
rakka eda ni kaeru to mireba kocho kana
And English: "A fallen petal settling back on its branch... wait, look: a butterfly."
This is a haiku by Arakida Moritake. I was delighted to find out that this haiku is in dialogue with a Japanese proverb about how fallen petals do NOT return to their branch; I'll post that proverb here in a separate post. So, it is a charming haiku to begin with, and all the more so when I know the proverb too! The proverb makes you realize that it cannot really be a petal returning to its branch, and then we can see: a butterfly.
My vocabulary for today:
枝
えだ
"branch"
No comments:
Post a Comment