triveni spotlight
A FEATURE EVERY ALTERNATE DAY!
hosts: Teji Sethi and Kala Ramesh
host editor: Teji Sethi
Theme: Raga in Nature
Journal: haikuKATHA
the silent night
begins to ripple …
a cicada's cry
carries a thirst too deep
for mere words
— Neena Singh
There is no end to seeing and hearing. The structure of the universe is infinite. Endless vibrating expansion.
~ Nanak
There are myriad sounds which pre-exist in nature and can be perceived by human ear. It is completely natural, both animals and humans to have profound reactions to certain sounds. Some songbirds sing from repertoires which use the same rhythms and note combinations as modern composers. For example, the canyon wren uses a 12-tone scale. The hermit thrush, on the other hand, sings in a five tone penta-scale which is common in Asian music. The tanka I have chosen to showcase, exquisitely capture the ‘music in nature’ be it the sound of ripples, a bird song, a cicada’s mating call, the rustle of leaves or the lament of paddy fields!
Teji Sethi
this is a tanka that lingers in my mind like a cicada's cry
Ah! A cicada's cry...the cry for searching for a mate. The metaphorical anthropomorphism is subtly shown by the poet in her words,
a cicada's cry carries a thirst too deep for mere words
But it's the beginning two lines which deepen the second fragment.
the silent night
begins to ripple …
Congrats! One of the best tanka! ❤️👍
Thrilled to see my tanka up in the triveni spotlight on11th October! Just back from Vietnam and got this lovely surprise. Grateful dear Teji for the beautiful write-up—honestly it left me speechless. This tanka, as Teji has intuited was triggered by a cicada’s cry of longing and my thirst of being away from a loved one—viraha. Grateful dear Teji for revisiting it! 💕🤗🙏
The lines and the images have come out extremely well, Neena. Where is Neena?
Looks like she doesn't know her tanka is up on triveni spotlight
!
Love the last three lines!