The main images in this poem are "ancient pond", "frog" and "a sound". "A sound" is the poetic eye of the poem. The poet highlights the tranquility of the surrounding environment through "a sound" and expresses the poet's inner tranquility and ease. The poem is not intended to reflect social life, nor does it involve politics and history. It only presents a picture of a paradise, allowing readers to experience a carefree mental state while reading.
Japanese haiku after Matsuo Basho generally have similar poetic pursuits. This pursuit is Zen in Buddhist culture.
We know that Buddhism first entered China from India and then spread to Japan. Therefore, long before the Japanese understood Zen, not only Zen Buddhism appeared in China, but also poets who expressed the meaning of Zen in poetry had appeared. Among them, the most famous ones include Kumarajiva, Han Shan, Liu Zongyuan, Wang Wei, etc. Among them, I think Wang Wei wrote the most and had the greatest influence.
The following poem is from Wang Wei, titled "Birdsong Stream":
In this poem, Wang Wei highlights the beauty of the night with "the moonrise scares the mountain birds" It is so peaceful that "the appearance of the moon frightened the birds"; and "Ming in the Spring Stream" not only contrasts with the "silent spring mountain sky at night", but also uses the birdsong to highlight the natural state of silence.
The expression technique of this poem is exactly the same as Matsuo Basho’s poem: using sound to write silence!
If Matsuo Basho only wrote one of the most Zen-like poems, then Wang Wei of the Tang Dynasty could write a Zen-like quatrain almost easily. Don’t believe it? Look at the following poem, which is called "Deer and Chai":
This poem still uses the technique of describing scenery, with the main images being "empty mountain", "human language", "forest", and "moss" ”, highlighting the tranquility and comfort of the environment. This poem is in no way inferior to Matsuo Basho's masterpiece.
The following poem also comes from Wang Wei, and its name is "Mountain Dwelling in Autumn Twilight":
In comparison, Wang Wei's poem is of a higher level, not only full of Zen ( "The bright moon shines among the pines, and the clear spring flows up the rocks."), and vividly and sweetly describes real life with "The bamboos rustle and return to the Huannu, and the lotus moves under the fishing boat." Unlike Matsuo Basho's poems, they only focus on describing scenes and are far removed from real life.
At this point in this section, some people may be wondering: What is Zen?
Well, this is really hard to answer. In fact, Zen is a mental state that cannot be described in words. If we have to use words to describe it, we can only say that it is close to (but not completely) quiet, quiet, or even a unique psychological state in which self-awareness is temporarily hidden. .
In order to explain what Zen means, I will quote Han Shan’s poem below. The whole poem is as follows:
The meaning of the poem is: My heart is like the moon in autumn, bright and clear, But I can only say that Qiuyue resembles my state of mind. In fact, it does not completely represent my state of mind. If you ask me, how am I feeling? I can only tell you this, apart from being like Qiuyue, I really can’t find any metaphor.
The above talks about Zen in Japanese haiku and Chinese Zen poetry. When haiku entered the English language, English poets could not help but be attracted by the unique and unique content of haiku (i.e., Zen meaning), and they began to imitate them one after another. But in fact, their imitation basically failed, even if the form was in accordance with the requirements of haiku. When it comes to the third line, one of them involves the seasons. Generally speaking, they just imitated the form without grasping the expression of Zen. The content is still Western-style.
Take Ezra Pound as an example. Although his world-famous song "In a Subway Station" was deeply influenced by Japanese haiku and even had only two lines in form, in terms of content, No critic so far has said that it is a Zen poem; because, essentially, it has nothing to do with Zen.
The English version of the poem "In a Tube Station" is as follows:
The translation is as follows:
It is said that Pound took a long time to write the above These two lines of poetry. However, we found that these two lines of poems did not mention the seasons, nor did they express tranquility. There was no Zen flavor at all, only a realistic and somewhat depressing life.
According to the research of literary critics, the "faces" refer to women, the "black branches" refer to the flow of people at the exit of the subway station, and the "petals" still refer to women. The meaning of the whole poem is: One evening, at the exit of a subway station, Pound saw several pale and tired faces among the crowd after get off work. The theme of the poem is intended to express the lack of hope and vitality in Western society.
Of course, there are also some well-written English haiku that express a specific Zen state. For example, the poems of the American haiku poet Hector:
Translation:
Another example:
Translation:
The famous Canadian haiku poet Ai Rick Ammann has also clearly mastered the expression of Zen, which can be seen from the following two poems:
Translation:
Another example:
Translation:
However, more often, we notice that English haiku does not express Zen, but only uses the language characteristics of haiku to express the poet's discovery or realization at a specific moment.
Therefore, when understanding English haiku, we cannot blindly try to figure out its Zen meaning, but should read it as a general poem. As long as we feel that it is beautiful and novel, we should stop and do not dig deeper.