triveni spotlight: 1st June 2025

triveni spotlight A FEATURE EVERY ALTERNATE DAY hosts: Anju Kishore and Mohua Maulik GUEST EDITOR: Kashiana Singh

1st June 2025

triveni spotlight June 2025

Haiku on Death and Rebirth

Kareeda ni

karasu tomaritaru ya

aki no kure

On a withered branch,

a crow has come to perch—

at dusk in autumn

—Tōsei (Tr. John T. Carpenter)

Period: Edo period (1615–1868)

Date: probably 1680s

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Mono no Aware: The Tenderness of Ending

In Japanese tradition, jisei—death poems composed by individuals on the brink of death—offer final reflections on life, impermanence, and the unknown beyond. Often brief, stark, and yet tender, these poems do not resist death but instead accept it as part of the natural rhythm of existence. Through nature imagery and minimalism, jisei endure as a person's final parable, their distilled teaching to those left behind.

Haiku, too, teaches us to see each moment as both a birth and a death. In its nakedness, haiku captures the bardo moments described in the Tibetan Book of the Dead—transitions between realms, between states of being. Every moment we live contains the seed of both beginning and ending.

The Japanese aesthetic of mujo (impermanence) and mono no aware ("the beauty of transient things") is naturally embedded in haiku, urging us to see not tragedy, but tenderness in the inevitable cycle of change.

In Indian philosophy, this cycle of life, death, and rebirth—samsara—is also seen as a sacred, continuous flow. Death is not a rupture but a return, part of the great wheel of existence. Acceptance of transitions, whether through mourning rituals, river immersions, or the lighting of a pyre, reflects a deep understanding that endings are inseparable from beginnings.

Thus, haiku echoes a universal wisdom across ancient cultures: to live is to move through endless openings and closings, with tenderness for what must pass.

Haiku strips away all but the essence. A poet can express an entire cosmos of grief, gratitude, and wisdom in just a few words. In contemplating death through haiku, we are also contemplating life—its urgency, tenderness, and fleeting beauty.

Through the acceptance of death, we are offered not despair but profound connection: to one another, to the seasons, and the moment-by-moment act of living.

in the cicada’s cry

no sign can foretell

how soon it must die

—Matsuo Bashō (Tr by William George Aston)

(Even amid lively sounds, death is always close.)

This month, i bring to you a selection of haiku that speak directly to the themes of death, loss, rebirth, and the bittersweet beauty of transience

Kashiana Singh

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Our thanks to Kashiana Singh, this month’s guest editor, for her selection on a theme that is inextricably linked to all our lives. Poets, we are sure you will find the poems and the write up engaging and thought-provoking. Don't forget to share your thoughts in the comments.

_()_ triveni spotlight team