Icicles
Uejima Onitsura (c. 1700)
Uejima Onitsura (1660-1738) was recognised as an outstanding poet already in his teens. He left the service of a local lord to devote himself entirely to ‘The Way of Haiku’. He declared that for him the essence of Haiku should be sincerity. Accordingly he set aside all artefact going directly to his truth. Here he asks ‘why do we appear to come across difference in the world’ (the world that is independent of humans) when, as many Buddhists like himself believe, it is the human mind that constructs such differences. Why on earth should we have experience of differences which we conjure; differences which then lead to our delusion?
Icicles on the edge of Loch Skene in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, reflected in its dark peaty water. Above translation by Stephen Addiss, Fumiko Yamamoto and Akira Yamamoto. (2002) ‘Haiku Landscapes’ Weatherhill, Connecticut.
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