pillar of salt…
an old man takes one last glance
at his cherry trees
Comment: this ku evokes the biblical story of Lot and his family, forced to leave Sodom before its destruction; his wife, unable to resist the temptation to look back at the city, turned into a lifeless ‘pillar of salt’ (Gn. 19:26). The feelings of sadness and regret emerging from this story are therefore reproduced in the haiku: an old man, quite close to his death, takes one last glance at the cherry trees (sakura 桜), both symbol of beauty and fragility (shiori しをり), suggesting a deep and complex emotional participation (kokoro ni kaku 心にかく).
