Haiku and Beauty

I am fond of haiku, and the poetry blog FirstKnownWhenLost has a discussion of Haiku, as translated and interpreted by the scholar RH Blyth.

This spring I once again returned to Blyth's wondrous creation: revisiting old favorites, being reminded of haiku I had once read but had forgotten, and making new discoveries.

A pear tree in bloom:
In the moonlight,
A woman reading a letter.

Buson (1716-1784) (translated by R. H. Blyth), in Blyth, Haiku, Volume II: Spring (Hokuseido Press 1950), page 323.

A night of stars;
The cherry blossoms are falling
On the water of the rice seedlings.

Buson (translated by R. H. Blyth), Ibid, page 170.

the blogpost notes the book about Haiku by the author RH Blyth which translates and explains the Haiku.

You can borrow some of these books from Internet Archives, and Blyth's book A History of Haiku Vol One can be found at the Haiku Foundation website.

everything else on the internet news etc seems to be hyperventillating about stuff with a critical eye, so I thought I might try to step back and contemplate beauty and unlike a lot of modern poetry, which seems to be political or so obscure that dunderheads like myself can't understand WTF they are talking about, Haiku paints a picture of beauty in one's head, while taking us outside of our own trivial troubles.

The reason for prayer, silence, or meditation on beauty is not to escape from life's problems, but to be strenghtened and to put things into perspective so we can live in hope when facing the travails of life.

“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

This week, Christians celebrated the feast of the Transfiguration, where the thick headed apostles were given a glimpse of Christ's glory. The feast is most important to Orthodox Christians, who stress mystical aspects of the faith, but there is a lesson even for those of us who are practical minded and often forget this part of religion is important also, because it feeds the soul so we have the strenght to hope.

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There are moments of intimacy, of serenity, of peace, of nearness to God, which everyone has known and wished to prolong. ...

Susanna Wesley had a prayer: "Help me, Lord, to remember that religion is not to be confined to the church or closet, nor exercised only in prayer and meditation, but that everywhere I am in thy presence." The moment of glory does not exist for its own sake; it exists to clothe the common things with a radiance they never had before.

 Source: Barclay's bible study. I have the books and the app for this, but you can find it on line here.