Friday again

The end of the week has come galloping around again... so it must be time for one of those little Japanesey things!

Having had a few fairly untraditional ones in recent weeks, I thought I would this time try to demonstrate my reverence for the original spirit of the haiku. This is one of my first, and I call it 'Warrior's Grave'. It is actually a translation of a famous Japanese original - although I have, to my shame, forgotten the author, and cannot locate him on the Net. (I hasten to point out that my knowledge of Japanese is limited to seppuku and teppanyaki; this was written with reference to a previous translation - by Arthur Waley, I suspect - and in consultation with a Japanese acquaintance.)

Visiting the site of a famous ancient battle - where numerous samurai had sacrificed themselves nobly, but probably needlessly - the poet was saddened to discover only a desolate hillside, with no kind of memorial to the brave men who had fought and died there; and yet he felt the place still alive with resonances of them. So he wrote:


Wind-torn, scattered blades
Of grass: only dream-remnants
Of the Mighty Ones.


It is, I'm sure, much better in the original.