🍨Seasonal Cup🍨 Arbitrary Awards ~ 'The Strange Things Happen on Hot Nights Award'🎐
Dear Hanakaze-sama
I hope you are surviving the lingering summer heat.
Although the days are still often quite hot,
how have you been?
The voices of the cicadas that were so loud and lively
are starting to fade away,
and I am beginning to feel the signs of autumn.
Looking back on this summer a little,
I have arbitrarily chosen the poem that captivated me the most
from the three you submitted for an award.
Thank you for your consideration. (..)_
The swimming pool at midnight, dark even to the bottom
Even to the bottom
Dark even to the bottom
Soko made mo kuraki (dark even to the bottom),
I feel a sense of being taken somewhere by the expression used here.
A swimming pool is a relatively common place, and if anything,
it often has a noisy impression where you can hear people shouting and screaming.
In my neighborhood, for example, elementary school pools are surrounded by high walls,
but they are located right across the street from the park.
In the evening, the water is left as is, and it becomes quiet.
I imagine that a pool shouldn't be that incredibly deep.
However, perhaps it is a little different in the middle of a hot, hot summer night.
To describe a pool as an entrance to another world like this,
it's not pitch black, but rather has the shimmering light unique to the night,
as if the bottom of the pool is connected to somewhere else, making me want to peek into the me-
mei
I often see this kanji in the word for 'underworld,' so I secretly checked
to see if I was reading it correctly.
I reaffirmed that this single character carries such a meaning.
https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/kanji/冥/
Cited from GOO Dictionary.
Meaning
〈Mei〉
1. Dark and invisible. 'Meian (darkness) / Kaimei (darkness) / Konmei (darkness) / Yumei (the netherworld)'
2. Ignorant of reason. 'Ganmei (stubborn ignorance)'
3. Deep. The depths of the heart. 'Meiso (meditation)'
4. The afterlife. 'Meikai (the underworld) / Meido (the land of the dead) / Meifuku (happiness in the afterlife)'
〈Myo〉 The workings of gods and Buddhas that transcend human knowledge. 'Myoga (divine favor) / Myogo (divine protection) / Myori (divine favor)'
It seems to be a Buddhist term.
The pool in the middle of the night, dark even to its depths
🌸🌸For more of Hanakaze-san's work, please visit their note via
the article link here🍨
↓↓
I was shown by Hanakaze-san how the use of a single kanji can give the entire haiku such depth!
I was shown an example by Hanakaze-san.
If I encounter a quiet waterfront filled to the brim with water on a hot summer day,
I think I will remember the phrase 'dark even to its depths'.
Thank you very much.