Wabi Sabi
One of my classroom topics last week and this was Wabi Sabi, that intimate moment when you encounter nature, a piece of art or an ordinary object you may see on a daily basis that gives you a sense of transience. It’s more than that. Leonard Koren discusses it in depth in his book on the topic. To put it in a nutshell, as I did today, it’s “the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent and incomplete.”…”things modest and humble” and “things unconventional.”
We went from this idea into a short look at haiku and then quickly before the bell rang you know what I assigned for homework. But before all of that happened, we also looked at a couple of haiku, one from Basho and the other a Buson. The one that I found particularly appropriate for the day was the one by Buson:
春雨や Harusame ya
物語り行く Monogatari yuku
蓑と 傘 Mino to kasa
I think there are various ways to translate this one.
Spring rain
talking and walking (or telling stories and talking) go
raincoat & umbrella (which refer to a man dressed in an old straw raincoat and woman with an umbrella)
It’s been an off and on rainy day today and the images just seemed to suit.
