There has been great debate regarding the following poem by Basho Matsuo.
古池や 蛙飛び込む 水の音
The old pond;
a frog jumps in,
the sound of water.
There is no plural in Japanese, so the use of "a" in "a frog" may be misleading.
How many frogs do you think there are? Why do you think so?
I'd like to hear your opinion. So please comment below.
4 comments:
Nic,
I have thought about this poem for many weeks. I have consulted the greatest minds the world has to offer, experimented on frog sociability and scaled the highest peaks in search of the ultimate truth of this question of the number of frogs involved in this undoubtably profane gathering of frogs. Could the modifcation of jump to jumps necessitate that there be only one frog? Does the Japanese translation allow for such specificity? Could millions of frogs leap, all synchronized, in the pond so there is only one monsterous sound of water? All of this questioning has inevitably led me to one horrifying epiphany: there were two frogs.
Sincerely,
Sage
Stumbling upon this debate I find myself forced to comment in the interest of the aformentioned frog or frogs. I think the debate has focussed heavily on the sound involved without paying enough attention to the creator and producer of said sound. To place myself in the frog's "shoes", I ask myself, "what is my motivation for taking this leap?" The answer inevitabley falls into one of three categories: Love, Wisdom, or Hunger. Wisdom seems to be the weakest possiblity due in part to the probable quantity of times this exercise had been performed by said frog prior to the poetic observation. Hunger? Would not the author comment on the buzz of insects had that presence been witnessed. That leaves Love. Ahhh Love, sweet elixir of the soul, inspiritation to all things of this world. I propose that one frog jumped. It jumped a great jump. A jump of Love. Amphibian love, but, love none the less... In short - One frog.
The old pond;
a frog jumps in,
the sound of water.
This is not a poem. This is code for something extremely sinister, probably a plot for world domination.
For a thorough and rather fascinating discussion of this haiku (and haiku in general) please see:
http://www.tempslibres.org/aozora/en/hart/hart02.html
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