Thursday night – Cicadas in translation

Just went for  run down here in the steamy early evening Carolina air.. it was like growing up in houston.. air so think you have to swim through it.. Great sound of cicadas everywhere. Reminded me of high school when we had to study Haiku.. i thin k it Ms. Kelly’s 12th grade English class..   I remember reading a Haiku by the Master Basho..   I looked it iup.. and seems it has a  bunch of different translations

 

shizukasa ya iwa ni shimiiru semi no koe

stillness–
sinking into the rocks,

cicadas’ cry –Barnhill, Bashō’s Haiku, 94, #392

the stillness—
seeping into the rocks
cicadas’ screech
–Ueda, Bashō and His Interpreters, 249

Quietness–
Sinking into the rocks,
A cicada’s cry.
–Ueda, Matsuo Bashō, 52

stillness—
sinking deep into the rocks

cries of the cicada
–Shirane, Traces of Dreams, 228, 273

Lonely stillness—
a single cicada’s cry
sinking into stone
–Hamill, The Essential Bashō, 22, 143

Ah, such stillness:
that the very rocks are pierced

by cicadas’ drone!
–Carter, Traditional Japanese Poetry, 356

Ah, tranquility! Penetrating the very rock,

stillness!
rocks into pierce cicada ‘s cry

a cicada’s voice.
–Helen Craig McCullough, Classical Japanese Prose, 539

How still it is here— Stinging into the stones, The locusts’ trill. –Keene, Narrow Road 99

Quietness: seeping into the rocks, the cicada’s voice –Sato, Narrow Road, 95

 

thats a lot of interpretation for a stupid bug…

 

but hey.. it sounds cool !

nite all, note sam

-me

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