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The temple bell stops, but the sound keeps coming out of the flowers.

Matsuo Bashō, translated by Robert Bly

Literature

The story behind the card

Bashō (1644–1694) is Japan's best-known haiku poet, also famous for travel journals such as The Narrow Road to the Deep North. This version is by the American poet Robert Bly, from The Sea and the Honeycomb, his 1971 anthology of short poems. In Japanese the haiku reads 'kane kiete / hana no ka wa tsuku / yūbe kana': the bell fades, and in the evening the scent of the blossoms goes on 'striking', the verb used for ringing a temple bell. Bly turned the scent into sound.

Türkçe oku
Tapınağın çanı susuyor, ama ses hâlâ çiçeklerden geliyor.
Matsuo Bashō (Robert Bly çevirisi)

Bashō (1644–1694), Japonya'nın en tanınmış haiku şairidir; yolculuk günlükleriyle de ünlüdür. Buradaki çeviri, Amerikalı şair Robert Bly'ın 1971'de yayımladığı kısa şiirler seçkisi The Sea and the Honeycomb'dan. Japonca aslı “kane kiete / hana no ka wa tsuku / yūbe kana”dır: Çanın sesi söner, akşamda çiçeklerin kokusu “çalmayı” sürdürür; “tsuku”, tapınak çanını çalmak için kullanılan fiildir. Bly bu kokuyu sese çevirmiştir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Matsuo Bashō
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