Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Carpe Diem #108, Birdsong



Dear haijin, visitors and travelers,

Here in The Netherlands our very cold and snowy period of Winter is over. After a day of rain all the snow has gone. Temperatures are rising and it feels almost like Spring. Birds are singing their songs and that gives me a lot of joy and the feeling of a warm Spring day.

Today we share haiku on th prompt 'birdsong'. And I have found a nice 'You Tube video' with wonderful 'sounds of Spring'. I love to share that video here for your inspiration.




What a lovely video don't you think? Those sweet songs of birds ... so relaxing ... so close to nature ... resonating with your soul. Awesome.

I found a wonderful haiku on 'bird song' written by Kobayashi Issa, one of the four greatest haiku masters:

sasa naki mo temochi-busata no kakine kana

bird song in bamboo grass--
too shy
for the fence

Sasa naki ("birdsong in bamboo grass") has a special meaning in Japanese: "In winter, the birdsong, especially that of a warbler, is not fully developed due to the low sex-drive. The fragmented birdsong in winter is called sasa-naki and has nothing to do with bamboo grass. Knowing this, Issa plays with the literal meaning of the word, sasa-naki, to juxtapose it to singing on the fence.

Or this one by Buson:

hatautsuya torisae nakanu yamakageni

Plowing the fields--
Even birds have no song

In the shadow of a mountain 




Birds singing what a joy to listen ... Let's go do some haiku composing on 'bird song'.

at dawn
on the thin line between night and day
Nightingale's song

early Spring morning
birds rejoicing Mother Nature -
Ah! that sweet sound


And one with a bit of humor in it:

'shut up!' I scream
after a night without sleep -
birds singing their songs



Well ... I love to write haiku on this prompt 'bird song' and I hope you do too. I am looking forward to your haiku for today. have fun, be creative and inspired. Share your wonderfully composed haiku here on Carpe Diem.

This prompt will stay on 'till January 31th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our last episode of Carpe Diem for this month later on today around 10.00 PM (CET) and that will be instead of 'cherry blossom' (as mentioned in our prompt list for January) 'early blossom', because cherry blossoms are more for March in which I will share all classical Japanese kigo (seasonswords) for Spring.




10 comments:

  1. Oh I enjoyed those so much-and agree with you a lot!The sound of birds...can be terribly annoying, especially at dawn, without sleep -that was the haiku I wanted to write!

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  2. The thin line beween night and day. This one resonated for me although I've never heard a nightingale!

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  3. The nightingale haiku is really brilliant. I love it. :-)

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  4. Instant inspiration with birds. Thank you for today's topic.

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  5. Great visuals and audios ~ Delightful post and Wonderful haiku ~ thanks again for hosting ~

    Carol of : A Creative Harbor

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  6. Love the idea of a thin line between night and day! Delightful haiku!

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  7. I'll have a look at the other entries later, wow, what a large number! Maybe I'll add a picture later.

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  8. Haha, love the humour in your third as the sour to the sweet of the first two wonderful haiku. Thank you as always Kristjaan.

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  9. I had to google nightingale so I could hear it's song. Beautiful. ( and excellent haiku) Would it be possible, dear teacher, to explain to us the difference between haiku and senyru ?

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  10. I shake my head in amazement at the haiku of Issa and Buson....they lift me up and float me away....and your haiku often do the same, as did the 'nightingale' haiku

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