Pathway to Japanese Literature
Discover Japan's stories—across time, across language.
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| Original Title | 六百五十句 |
|---|---|
| Author | 高浜 虚子 |
| Genre | Modern Short Fiction |
| Author Type | Male Author |
| Summary | Amidst the quiet solitude of a snowbound mountain retreat, a poet’s year unfolds through fleeting moments etched in haiku. Seasons shift like whispers: winter’s biting cold seeps into ink-stained hands, icicles cling to desolate eaves, and windblown snow stylizes the world anew. Spring arrives with plum blossoms and village children plucking herbs, while summer hums with fireflies and salted cucumbers pressed by dutiful hands. Autumn drapes itself in chrysanthemums and thunderous rains, and winter returns, its frost-laden silence broken only by the cry of a lone crow. \nThrough shoji screens and kotatsu warmth, life’s ephemeral beauty is captured—a butterfly escaping painted patterns, a mother sparrow thinning itself for its chick, laughter echoing across rice fields at dusk. The poet’s contemplative gaze finds grace in both grandeur and mundanity: a rainbow arching over pasture fences, dew clinging to morning grass, the weight of a staff marking time through withered fields. \nThis is a journey not of events, but of presence—a meditation on transience, resilience, and the quiet pulse of existence. Each verse invites readers to linger in the spaces between breaths, where the ordinary becomes sublime. |
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