I am not quite sure what you will think about my urge to quote a haiku poem on this blog. When I took this photo the day before yesterday, the autumn leaves struck me as rather poetic and the Japanese art of haiku came to my mind. Haiku, if you would allow me to quote from Wikipedia ‘… is a form of Japanese poetry, consisting of 17 moras (or on), in three phrases of 5, 7, and 5 moras respectively. Although haiku are often stated to have 17 syllables, this is inaccurate as syllables and moras are not the same. Haiku typically contain a kigo (seasonal reference), and a kireji (cutting word). In Japanese, haiku are traditionally printed in a single vertical line and tend to take aspects of the natural world as their subject matter, while haiku in English often appear in three lines to parallel the three phrases of Japanese haiku and may deal with any subject matter. Previously called hokku, haiku was given its current name by the Japanese writer Masaoka Shiki at the end of the 19th century’ (end of quote).

So, here it goes:

秋深し何処まで届く山の鐘　　　　　松田美子

aki fukashi doko made todoku yama no kane

deep autumn
how far
the mountain bell reaches

Yoshiko Matsuda
(from Haiku Dai-Saijiki [“Comprehensive Haiku Saijiki”], Kadokawa Shoten, Tokyo, 2006).

The photo was taken in Felanitx, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: November 9th, 2010. The time was 11:37:42. The haiku poem was borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of Blue Willow Haiku World at fayaoyagi.wordpress.com.

Thank you very much, and

domo arigato.