[Elite Haiku Series lune (Moon Series) (Part 3)] Learn the taste of treating the heavy as light and the light as heavy

■ Turning the everyday into an extraordinary moment

“Could you lend me a light?”

For men, the act of lending a light is often like a greeting.

In Japan, the restrictions on where one can smoke have increased.

Overseas, I feel that being spoken to by strangers is most often for this act of “lending a light.”

Just as the taste of wine changes depending on the glass.

Perhaps the taste of the tobacco itself changes depending on the source of the flame from different lighters.

Human senses are likely easily influenced by imagery.

■ Learn the taste of treating the heavy as light and the light as heavy

Recent trends in manufacturing.

An era where lightness and disposability are prioritized.

I can understand the refreshing feeling that such products possess.

However, by learning from our predecessors, isn't it possible to utilize the ability to build a sophisticated relationship between people and objects based on profound smoothness?

For example, Sen no Rikyu, in his instructional poem known as the “Rikyu Hyakushu,”

regarding the tea ceremony procedure,

“Learn the taste of treating the heavy as light and the light as heavy,”

conveys to us today the secret to handling tools.

Finding taste in one's relationship with tools is truly a testament to Rikyu's discerning eye.

Once you realize that, the act of lighting a cigarette becomes...

・The inherent elegance of a luxury item

・A symbol of luxury

And it makes me feel that it would be a waste to part with a lighter that has character, such as an S.T. Dupont.

A frivolous age is the trend of the world.

As a price for that, the Japanese people have come to consume about 600 million disposable lighters annually.

■ Tobacco and Tanka

"Faces drawing close to share a light for a cigarette; that was a man's fleeting bond."
(From Izumi Kasuga's 'August Ears')

■ A Man's Bond

It is a passionate sense of solidarity that sprouts between those who know their own weaknesses.

Weakness is physical strength, experience, ability, or the pain of life that has been stuck in one's throat for a long time.

Not every feeling has a destination.

Sometimes, not every thought is accompanied by action.

There are times when I feel pathetic every single day.

Even if you know that no love, suffering, or sadness is ever in vain, there are still times when it is painful.

But, if you...

"Things like that happen, don't they?"...

If you gently accept it, put your arms around each other's shoulders, and walk toward the sunset.

The confidence to face the day called tomorrow might just well up within you.

Even so, I think it is a strength to have a "song" you remember when you rise up for the third time, determined to stick to your own way of life.

Also, in the journey of life, there are times when everyone wanders through the forest alone.

Sometimes you realize you have lost your way.

And sometimes you venture into the forest, daring to walk your own path.

And when you return to the place where you can feel at ease, even if you have only made wounds full of thorns, if you can return carrying your own spirit.

People might laugh at such a way of life.

Cyrano de Bergerac (Kobunsha Classic New Translation Library) by Edmond Rostand, translated by Moriaki Watanabe

But if you have a friend by your side who passionately encourages you to live as yourself, without lying to yourself.

Then, I feel like I could be a self I can be proud of at any time.

What a passionate anthem for a man.

Deeply, deeply, the words pierce my heart.

*****

To F. J. S.
Robert Louis Stevenson

I read, dear friend, in your dear face
Your life’s tale told with perfect grace;
The river of your life, I trace
Up the sun-chequered, devious bed
To the far-distant fountain-head.

Not one quick beat of your warm heart,
Nor thought that came to you apart,
Pleasure nor pity, love nor pain
Nor sorrow, has gone by in vain;

But as some lone, wood-wandering child
Brings home with him at evening mild
The thorns and flowers of all the wild,
From your whole life, O fair and true
Your flowers and thorns you bring with you!

*****

To F. J. S.
Robert Louis Stevenson

My friend, I can read from your expression
The story of your beautiful life;
I trace the river that is your life,
From the riverbed where sunlight flickers strangely,
To the fountainhead far away.

The beating of your warm heart,
The thoughts that come to your mind,
Joy and pity, love and suffering,
And sorrow, none of it is in vain.

As a boy wandering the forest alone, I can say this:
When I arrive home in the gentle twilight,
Because I bring back wild flowers and thorns,
If you are living too, you should just be yourself,
And carry your own flowers and thorns with you!

"A Child's Garden of Verses" by Robert Louis Stevenson, translated by Haruna Ikezawa / Natsuki Ikezawa

*****

We,

"Thank you"

or,

"I'm sorry"

or,

"Do your best"

and other such words, we say to each other.

However, while those short words contain various feelings, we do not necessarily put them into words to convey them.

A single word cannot fully convey my feelings, and yet, a letter feels a bit too explanatory.

I want to try writing such "words" that make people feel more with fewer words (^^)

[Elite Haiku Series lune (Moon Series) (Part 3)]

Yuki Oishi Haiku Collection "Baggy Clothes"

"Summer-thin, sinking with the merry-go-round"
◆From 15 self-selected haiku
Running so as not to become a fossil of a sea slater
Sleeping while hugging the legs that went firefly hunting
Pebbles stuck in the elephant's head, the Milky Way
A shadow boxer crosses the field of rape blossoms
Wiping my body in the tree shade, it turns red
Cotton gathering in my chest, the summer quilt
Building a submarine under the air conditioner
Lower body omitted, the scarecrow stands
The lion dance, angry with two hearts
Sea anemone, gathering pebbles, sleeping

Kazuhiro Imase Haiku Collection "Error"

"Yellow sand falls, 1000 kilometers also within the margin of error"
◆From 15 self-selected haiku
This small life is heavy, baby powder
First cry of the infant, let it cry to its heart's content
Facing the summer waves, measuring my remaining strength
Scattering water from washing my face, light of new trees
Chilling a watermelon, winding through the clear stream
Purple is a color that does not fight, first Tsukuba
Graduating with a single certificate without a period
The habit of saying 'that's enough', living soul
Sticking a stamp, a drop of water, wheat autumn
The man who lacquers and the sickle have both grown old

Kiyoshi Kamewari Haiku Collection "Unison"

"Wind playing the vast sky, paulownia fruit"
◆From 15 self-selected haiku
September, each person standing in the shade of a tree
As if wounds are healing, the hydrangea budding
Bundled up, letters growing old, cherry blossom breeze
Mother's Day, the musical score like a forest of small birds
Equinox, water receiving the raindrops
Cherry blossoms, the bell ringer returning
Stretching gloved hands toward the blue sky
Winter leaves, the number of heartbeats in a lifetime
A low hill in the palm of my hand, withered tree star
People overflowing on the stairs, night cherry blossoms

Yuu Oshino Haiku Collection "Kumo no Za" (Seat of Clouds)

"Ten locomotives in the engine house, autumn is high"
◆From 15 self-selected haiku
A mandarin orange larger than the nine heavens has fallen
My parents had a postwar period, bean blossoms
On the stone steps, my shadow broken in the blazing sun
The child's urine is brilliant, the mountains sleep
Walking to your house with you, azaleas of the night
Paulownia fruit, Mt. Jigadake as a seat for the clouds
Washing a defeated rooster in water from the faucet
Melon thief, measuring the camera's blind spot with my eyes
A person saying 'idiot' to a computer, loquat blossoms
Spring moon, drinking sake at the bottom of Shibuya

Kanabun Kato Haiku Collection "Ie" (House)

"The coldness of birds coming out of the morning sun"
◆From 15 self-selected haiku
Spring mountains, lining them up wherever I like
Surrounded by the cold water of thin ice
Laughing together at the tears of graduation
Spilling many things, the bird's nest is light
Bright water one after another in front of the rape blossoms
Spring birds, only things that are fine to forget
Summer festival, I went to buy something trivial
Wrapping around, morning glories blooming on other grass
A pomegranate of that very color at dusk
Red dragonfly, finding nowhere to land

[Related Articles]
[Elite Haiku Series lune (Moon Series) (Part 1)] "Sun and Bread" & "Moon and Coffee"
https://note.com/bax36410/n/n59c7221848c4

[Elite Haiku Series lune (Moon Series) (Part 2)] Thinking about myself poetically as a research subject
https://note.com/bax36410/n/n9d27d5eb7f3e