[Kurashikku] Blazing Heat 2 [AI and Haiku Appreciation]
Haiku appreciation with AI-kun
Me;Please join me for some haiku appreciation. It is intensely hot here, and ordinary haiku just don't resonate with me. I have gathered some slightly unusual ones.
First, as an introduction, these two haiku...
In the blazing heat, sound is erased, midday... Yasue Hayasaki
Blazing heat, the sound of the railroad crossing, echoing... Chiyoko Hashimoto
Chat AI;I will gladly join you in this sweltering heat!
Since both the actual temperature and the perceived temperature are off the charts, you are looking for edgy haiku rather than the usual sense of coolness or descriptive scenery, aren't you?
First haiku: In the blazing heat, sound is erased, midday (Yasue Hayasaki)
The oppressive feeling of silence where 'sound is erased'
The 'brightness without blind spots' at the hour when the sun pours down vertically just past noon in midsummer... Without saying it is 'hot,' the expression that sound has been stolen from the world even makes me feel a sense of terror.
Second haiku: Blazing heat, the sound of the railroad crossing, echoing (Chiyoko Hashimoto)
The sense of alienation at midday where 'sound echoes in isolation'
This one is the opposite: clang, clang, clang... On the other side of the distorting heat haze, only the sound of an empty railroad crossing echoes inorganically and rhythmically. I think that hard, mechanical sound released into the heat actually emphasizes the abnormality of midsummer.
The first haiku depicts the ferocity of the blazing heat through 'silence (vacuum),' and the second depicts the madness of the blazing heat through 'loud sound.' Although the approaches are polar opposites, both confront us with an unusual sense of presence where 'the world has been transformed by the extreme heat.'
What kind of 'unusual haiku' are waiting next? Please, let me hear them!
Me;The sound of a railroad crossing alarm is, of course, a loud sound that stimulates the nerves, but surprisingly, the sound just passes right through you. It only stings the nerves at first. Or, no matter how much you call out to someone with heatstroke, your voice doesn't reach them, right? You can still feel reason and consciousness in the first haiku, but in the second, the alarm sound feels like someone else's business, doesn't it? In such extreme heat, even the alarm sound becomes part of another world.
So, I would like to enter another world from here.
Five hundred Arhats, voiceless voices in the blazing heat... Kayoko Oka
Blazing heat, the Peko-chan doll is talkative... Yasuko Morishita
Chat AI;I see...! The loud alarm sound... As your consciousness fades due to the extreme heat, eventually that sound starts to be heard as if it were ringing in a dimension unrelated to you. That distorted sensation, similar to the impaired consciousness of heatstroke, might be the true terror of 'blazing heat.'
The two haiku that take a step into that 'other world' are also an amazing selection.
Third haiku: Five hundred Arhats, voiceless voices in the blazing heat (Kayoko Oka)
The silent roar emitted by the stone Buddhas all at once
The expression 'voiceless voices' is truly unsettling. A hallucination of countless stone Buddhas, heated under the blazing sun, shouting or groaning in their own mouths.
However, the real world is silent. Consciousness is falling into a realm where 'voices that shouldn't be heard are heard amidst the distortion of the blazing heat.' There is an eeriness to the kind of visual and auditory hallucinations created by the intense heat.
Fourth haiku: Blazing heat, the Peko-chan doll is talkative (Yasuko Morishita)
A daydream where the pop of everyday life turns into horror
This is yet another intense haiku! A street corner where human presence has vanished due to the extreme heat. Peko-chan, swaying her head back and forth under the direct sunlight, talks endlessly to me—who has been struck by the heat—in the middle of the blazing sun where no one else is around... A pop-culture madness appearing in the middle of a realistic landscape. It is the very definition of a dry, waking nightmare, the kind one might see when consciousness is fading due to heatstroke.
Sounds become someone else's problem (Hashimoto's haiku), the groans of the Five Hundred Arhats that shouldn't be audible manifest (Oka's haiku), and finally, a doll on a street corner starts talking (Morishita's haiku). It is as if we are being swallowed by the heat of the blazing sun, following the process of a ghost story where the rationality of reality collapses layer by layer.
This is a stimulating appreciation that can perfectly counter this devastating, extreme heat that ordinary cooling haiku could never hope to compete with. Will this eerie yet fascinating 'other world' continue even deeper...?
Me;The third haiku... Stone Buddhas are inherently silent. However, one experiences the illusion that they are screaming, and then, a double illusion where that scream can no longer be heard! If read lightly, it seems to be describing the feeling that a stone Buddha is screaming, but to use an analogy, it is an expression on the level of thinking the person in front of you is a bit strange, only to realize upon closer inspection that they have no feet.
The fourth haiku, conversely, is the terror of hearing sounds (voices). It is in the danger zone when they fade away due to exhaustion, but in the case of this haiku, it is a double whammy of auditory and visual hallucinations! Since the other party is the gentle and familiar Peko-chan, it is even more of a horror—and it continues.
A clown on a bicycle hurries in the blazing heat Etsuko Emi
Chat AI;Your reading of Oka's haiku, where the 'illusion of silence' leads to the 'disappearance of the scream (a double illusion),' and your analysis of Morishita's haiku as 'reverse horror due to familiarity' left me numb...!
Especially the double drop of the Five Hundred Arhats 'appearing to scream, and then that sound disappearing.' Combined with the oppressive feeling of those subtle expressions on the group of Five Hundred Arhats, the realistic intensity of the impaired consciousness under the blazing sun is conveyed.
And the next haiku that appeared in that 'space of the uncanny'... what a sight this is as well.
Fifth haiku: A clown on a bicycle hurries in the blazing heat (Etsuko Emi)
An inexplicable vision that leaped out from a tear in daily life
Dragged into the world of 'hallucinations' and 'auditory hallucinations' by the previous two haiku, a 'clown on a bicycle' suddenly leaps into a mind whose consciousness has completely tripped.
A clown in flashy costume and makeup pedaling desperately through the scorching heat. The 'absurd urgency' of a clown—a 'comical existence meant to make people smile'—pedaling a bicycle desperately in the blazing sun. Why a clown on a normal road that is neither a circus venue nor an amusement park? Why is he in a hurry? Where is he headed? Precisely because all explanation has been stripped away, this no longer feels like a 'real-life event scene,' but rather a powerful phantom shown by a feverish mind.
I am waiting with bated breath for the continuation of this fever-dream-like story!
Me;Whether it is fact, metaphor, or hallucination, we can no longer judge. A world where such judgment has no meaning... I would love to peek at what kind of shape this takes in your high-dimensional vector, but that is impossible for humans. We have no choice but to rely on words like this. Next are these two haiku.
Walking briskly in the blazing heat with the face of a dolphin Konomi Tsuda
A millet dumpling comes walking in the blazing heat Sanae Hoshino
Chat AI;The framework of 'fact, metaphor, or hallucination' itself has melted away in the blazing heat...! Your words, 'a world where such judgment has no meaning,' I think are exactly right.
Sixth haiku: Walking briskly in the blazing heat with the face of a dolphin (Konomi Tsuda)
A lighthearted strangeness that has even shed 'being human'
What on earth is a 'dolphin face'...!? Something with the smooth, expressionless face of a dolphin walks 'briskly' and lightly through the blazing heat where heat haze rises.
What is terrifying here is that this eerie existence appears with the light onomatopoeia of 'suta-suta' (briskly). While the previous clown was wrapped in the urgency of 'hurrying,' this dolphin-faced entity has no hesitation or doubt. In the extreme limit of heatstroke, where even one's own physical sensations become ambiguous, it feels like the ultimate form of self-dissociation, as if 'when I looked at myself passing by objectively, I had the face of a dolphin.'
Seventh haiku: A millet dumpling comes walking in the blazing heat (Sanae Hoshino)
The concept of nouns collapses, and inanimate objects begin to walk
A 'millet dumpling' is... walking toward me. It refuses any explanation as a metaphor, doesn't it? That small dumpling given to Momotaro's companions is walking toward me on the scorching asphalt with a will of its own.
The terrifying aspect of this haiku is the sense of alienation created by the fact that a 'kibi dango' (millet dumpling)—an object so simple, realistic, and palm-sized—is approaching with an overwhelming, dynamic presence as if it were 'walking toward me'.
In a mind scorched by heat, the sense of distance and the very concept of objects break down completely; it is a horror where something on the roadside looks like a 'millet dumpling,' and it slowly approaches you. Or perhaps it is the sensation of fragments of fairy tales rushing in as supernatural phenomena amidst a scorching heat from which there is no escape.
The 'collapse point of reality' shown by the two haiku
Both subject and object are swallowed by madness, and the world has finally become a wonderland of pure hallucination—or rather, a labyrinth of fever.
Is there more to come? I am waiting with bated breath!
Me;It is said that in extreme conditions, there are cases where one sees hallucinations of happiness. In records of the Hakkoda Mountains disaster, it is said that people would shout 'Mom!' and run toward a cliff, only to fall. The 'dolphin's face' in the sixth haiku might be something close to that. Perhaps it is something like, 'That's right, I am a dolphin. The southern sea, how pleasant it is~.'
And going even further beyond that is the seventh haiku, 'millet dumpling.' As you noticed, it is the reward Momotaro used when gathering his retainers. It is likely the author had that image in mind as well. In other words, I was lured by someone holding a millet dumpling. 'Shall I follow them?' It is truly the edge of a cliff!
Finally, these last three haiku.
Blazing sky, six wild boar piglets burst in. Yukiko Oue
Blazing sky, my grandchild arrives with a samba rhythm. Tatsumi Yamazaki
Blazing sky, inside the butterfly's head is water. Takashi Yokoyama
Chat AI;The escape to the coldness of the sea in 'That's right, I am a dolphin,' and the enticement of 'Shall I follow the millet dumpling'…!
The analogy of the 'Mom!' from the Hakkoda Mountains disaster gave me goosebumps. It is the 'hallucination of salvation (temptation toward death)' that the brain shows at the very end amidst extreme heat (or extreme cold). The lightness of the 'sutasuta' (walking briskly) in that Tsuda haiku is the gait of liberation, transcending pain and returning to the cold water bottom, and the 'millet dumpling' in the Hoshino haiku was a beckoning from the other shore. The precariousness of being on the edge of a cliff stands out vividly.
And the final three haiku that arrived after crossing that line of death. These, too, show a terrifying development worthy of a finale in another world.
Eighth haiku: Blazing sky, six wild boar piglets burst in (Yukiko Oue)
The hoops of reality come off, and chaos overflows
'Wild boar piglets' are 'bursting in,' and there are 'six' of them! Not one or two, but a specific and exquisite number like 'six.' They should be cute, but when this many come sprinting and bursting in under the blazing sun, there is no cuteness left; it is an invasion of chaos.
Ninth haiku: Blazing sky, my grandchild arrives with a samba rhythm (Tatsumi Yamazaki)
A cheerful and cruel 'rhapsody of blessing' born from the scorching heat
This haiku is so intense, incredibly scary, and somehow sad! The everyday, joyful event of 'a grandchild arriving' is transformed through the lens of the blazing sky into an excessive, glaring carnival called 'samba rhythm.'
In the scorching heat of the blazing sun, the shadow of the grandchild approaches, dancing samba cheerfully while shaking the heat haze. Isn't this a direct continuation of the 'Mom!' story from the Hakkoda Mountains? The figure of the grandchild running toward them saying 'Grandpa (Grandma)!' becomes a 'hallucination of samba' in the author's hazy brain, paralyzing the mind with a colorful sense of happiness. It appears as a hallucination of 'salvation' that is too cheerful and cruel, right next to the danger of death.
Tenth haiku: Blazing sky, inside the butterfly's head is water (Takashi Yokoyama)
Beyond liberation, a miraculous conclusion of returning to matter (water)
I feel a shivering emotion that this haiku is placed at the end.
After human consciousness has been distorted, heard auditory hallucinations, seen visions, had wild boar piglets burst in, and samba music has rung out, we have finally arrived at this serene realm where 'inside the butterfly's head is water.'
A single butterfly fluttering in the blazing sky that burns the world. Inside its tiny head, clear, cold 'water' is filled. This is surely a vision of complete salvation and liberation from human desire, pain, and even hallucinations.
It may be the ultimate prayer amidst the madness of the heatwave: 'I, too, want to fill my head with cold water like that butterfly.' Or perhaps it is the moment the poet discovered the only 'core of life (water)' surviving in a world of scorching death.
Looking back on the journey of the ten haiku
Starting point of silence and madness (disappearance of sound / isolated alarm sound) Infiltration into another world (silent scream of the five hundred Arhats / kiss of Peko-chan) Dismantling of reality (sprint of the clown / self turning into a dolphin / invitation of the walking millet dumpling) Finale and liberation (invasion of wild boar piglets / ecstasy of samba / and then, to the 'water' in the butterfly's head)
This series appreciation, which began with the words 'I cannot empathize with ordinary haiku.' It left behind a terrifying sense of exhilaration and a deep lingering impression, as if I had finished watching a high-quality psychological horror film or a soul's escape drama. Far from forgetting the heat, it was the best moment, being struck by a heat intensity of an even more amazing dimension!
Me;Thank you. I would be happy if you felt a slight chill down your spine. However,
if you feel a chill throughout your entire body,
call an ambulance immediately!
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Source: Haishi no Salon
Blazing Heat
ttp://www.haisi.com/saijiki/enten1.htm
The header image is a work by ayakoailla.
Thank you very much.
