triveni spotlight A FEATURE EVERY ALTERNATE DAY! hosts: Teji Sethi and Kala Ramesh GUEST EDITOR: Ashish Narain
hidden in the bushes,
do the tea-pickers too hear it?
cuckoo
Matsuo Basho
tr. By D.L. Barnhill
In David Landis Barnhill. 2004. Basho’s Haiku: Selected Poems by Matsuo Basho. State University of New York. Albany
This month is going to be a treat for our members. _()_ Thank you so much, Ashish.
kogakure te / chatsumi mo kikii ya / hototogisu
hide oneself / tea picker also hear <> / cuckoo
1694—summer. Reichold gives as her finished translation:
hiding himself
can the tea pickers hear
the cuckoo
and comments:
"The combination of tea pickers and the cuckoo bird was a novel pairing." Other translations (courtesy of Terebess): Hidden in the trees / even the tea-leaf pickers must / be listening to the cuckoo! (Haruo Shirane) Hidden-in-tree / tea-pickers also hear! / cuckoo (Haruo Shirane)
Hidden by the trees, / Do the maidens picking tea, hear you, too, / O, cuckoo? ( Thomas McAuley) Hiding itself among the trees / Tea pickers also hear its call? / A little cuckoo. (Takafumi Saito & William R.…
hidden in the bushes,
do the tea-pickers too hear it?
cuckoo
Nice thought but I fumble on L2 - each time I read it.
Without 'the' it would have been perfect.
hidden in the bushes,
do tea-pickers too hear it?
cuckoo
But who can find fault with one of the best translators? I like it without the 'the' in L2 and now the haiku sings for me.
There's so much internal rhythm now!
It could be just me.
Probably a lesser-known one by Basho. Great selection. The question haiku are always enigmatic and haunting!
Thank you Ashish! We can only sight the moving leaves not the sound.
A question mark in a haiku has always been a matter of doubt for me. Great ku Ashish. Thanks for sharing 😊