haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering! 17th May 2025

haikaiTALKS: Seasonal Words | a saturday gathering under the banyan tree

host: Srinivasa Sambangi

17th May 2025

haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering under the banyan tree

Your host for haikaiTALKS: Srinivas Sambangi

haikaiTALKS 17th May 2025

Indian saijiki:

For the next few weeks, we will focus on haiku based on Indian seasonal words. We often refer to World Kigo Data (WKD) base for the seasonal words. There is a special section on the WKD website on Indian Saijiki, which was mostly contributed by Kala Ramesh. While the focus is on picking typical Indian seasonal words, I will choose three words every week which are not unknown to the rest of the world as prompts.

Unlike many other countries, according to the classical text of Ritusamharam, India has six seasons, each comprising two months.

Spring - called Vasant（Basant) - in the months of Chaitra and Vaishakh approximately March and April

Summer – called Grishma –in the months of Jaishthya and Aashadh approximately May and June Rains – called Varsha - in the months of Shravan and Bhadrapad approximately July and August Autumn called Sharad - in the months of Aashwin and Kartik approximately September and October Frost – called Hemant – in the months of Margshishya and Pousha approximately November and December Winter - called Shishir - in the months of Magh and Phalgun approximately January and February.

It’s peak summer in India around this time. It’s also the holiday season for the Indian students. Indians often seek relief from the heat by visiting cooler destinations, enjoying various indoor and outdoor recreational activities. Indians also relish lot of summer dishes and fruits typical of this season.

Kigo chosen for this week are:

1. Buddha Purnima/ Buddha day/ Buddha Jayanti:

Buddha is believed to be born on Purnima (full moon day) in the Vaisakha month of the Buddhist calendar and the Vikram Samvat Hindu calendar. It usually falls in the month of May. This year, it was celebrated on May 12th. Buddha’s Birthday, also called Buddha Jayanti or Buddha Day, is a major Buddhist festival observed across much of South, Southeast, and East Asia.

Buddha’s birthday

on this very day is born

a fawn

-- Basho (Tr by Jane Reichhold)

2. Mango/mangoes/mango pickle:

Mango is a delicious and nutritious tropical fruit. It’s a good source of vitamins A and C and is known for its sweetness and juicy texture. It has rich nutritional content, including improved immunity, digestion and skin health. There are a lot of varieties of mangoes, each having its unique texture and taste. They are grown throughout India, each region having a variety of its own. For example, Alponso is one of the most expensive varieties grown mainly in the Konkan region of western India (Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka)

gentle wind

ripe mangoes one by one

straighten the branch

- Srinivasa Rao Sambangi Haiku Crush Anthology 2023, Grand Mention Prize

3. Jasmine:

Jasmine flowers are very typical of summer in India. They are known for their sweet fragrance and the purity of white. They are used for decoration in marriage and other functions. It’s a tradition for Indian women (especially South Indians) to wear them in their hair.

no rain…

ah but the scent

of jasmine

    -- John Knight

For commentary on this poem, please click: https://haikucommentary.wordpress.com/2018/02/24/john-knights-jasmine/

Looking forward to seeing your haiku this week with any of the above summer kigo.

Ref:

https://indiasaijikiworlkhaiku.blogspot.com/2006/12/seasonal-words-list.html

For those not familiar with the Indian seasonal words can substitute with seasonal references they experience in their country.

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KIGO WORDS

Shall we please try to include a kigo word in all the poems we share here?

Give the season and the word—under your poem. 

I'm quoting Lev Hart's request here: "This week’s goal is to compose two verses with toriawase, blending wabi, sabi, karumi, mono no aware, and/or yugen. Tell us which aesthetic concepts you mean to express in a line below the verse. Strive for originality. Avoid stock phrases and shopworn images."

For seasonal references, please check these lists:

“A Dictionary of Haiku Classified by Season Words with Traditional and Modern Methods,” by Jane Reichhold:

https://thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/7fb6654a1dfd1afef97369da920530f8.pdf

indian subcontinent SAIJIKI:

https://www.trivenihaikai.in/indian-saijiki

The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words:

http://www.2hweb.net/haikai/renku/500ESWd.html

The World Kigo Database:

https://wkdkigodatabase03.blogspot.com/

The Yuki Teikei Haiku Season Word List:

https://yths.org/season-word-list/

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Thank you for this post, Srinivas.

I hope our poets take the challenge and create a haiku on these lines!

Dear Members,

Please give your feedback on others' commentary and poems, too. _()_

We are continuing haikaiTALKS grandly!

Keep writing and commenting! _kala