Mountain and moor
not one thing that moves
morning snow
Widely regarded as one of the most important female haiku poets, Fukuda Chiyo-ni was a Japanese poet of the Edo period. She started writing haiku early in her childhood and was strongly influenced by Basho’s poetry (probably because her teachers were his students).
The fundamentals in Basho’s poetry include sabi (detached loneliness), wabi (poverty of spirit), hosomi (slenderness, sparseness), shiori (tenderness), sokkyo (spontaneity), makoto (sincerity), fuga (elegance), karumi (simplicity), kyakkan byosha (objectivity), and shiZen to hitotsu ni naru (oneness with nature). Fukuda Chiyo-ni was particularly interested in the latter since most of her poetry deals with the realm of nature.
I found this haiku in the free ebook Those Women Writing Haiku by Jane Reichhold.
Haiku by Fukuda Chiyo-ni
Picture by Noah Silliman
This haiku poem is part of the Naviar haiku music challenge, where artists are invited to make music in response to a weekly assigned haiku poem. Participation is free and there are no limitations in the songs’ length or genre.
You have seven days from the posting of this haiku to submit your track. For information on how to make a submission, visit the Naviar Haiku Music Challenge page.
Submission deadline: 5th September 2018
‘der strom des himmels / nur wie ein schattenspiel / in heller mondnacht’