drystone walls–
the different songs
of cicadas
Comment: a summer haiku that plays on the contrast between the dryness (kansō 乾燥) and stillness (seishi 静止) of the walls in line 1 and the vitality of cicadas in the last ku. It somehow reminds me of another well-known poem by Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694): 閑さや岩にしみ入る蝉の声 shizukesa ya iwa ni shimiiru semi no koe (stillness/ the cicadas’ cry/ sinks into the rock). However, while this last ku focuses on the subtle (hosomi 細身), penetrating nature of the cicadas’ cry in a quite circumscribed setting, the haiku by Nazarena Rampini emphasizes a different aspect, ie the various changes of tone and the choral nature of the scene that open up to the world, in a wide (futoi 太い), bucolic environment that, despite the presence of a few physical obstacles (the ‘drystone walls’), promotes an appreciable sense of openness.
