Musical Washing Machine ~ Original Haiku
The other night I was doing my zazen when I noticed the washing machine. It wasn’t loud, but it was loud enough to overwhelm the subtle noises that usually rise up when the world grows still.
After my zazen was finished, I wrote down this:
the washing machine is
oddly musical
I have been touching on this theme in my posts for the past few days, so maybe that’s where the haiku flowed from. Whatever the case may be, there we go.
Zazen is more or less another word for meditation. It’s not quite the same as what you might be picturing, but it’s close enough. You aren’t really supposed to focus on anything while doing it, but when something like the washing machine is doing its thing, it is somewhat difficult to ignore.
There is a beauty in the noise. There’s a beauty in any noise, actually, but there is just enough rhythm in a washing machine to give a suggestion of music. I wonder what Brian Wilson might have done with that if he had made the observation. Dude could use practically anything (and often did) to create his harmonies, so why not a washing machine?
At any rate, there isn’t any stated kigo (season word) here, but the image of a “quiet night” might be associated with winter, which the insect nightly noises of summer and autumn fade away to leave us with a more silent landscape.
❦
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David is an American teacher and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Bluesky. |
Ever since I've read somewhere that the "universe is sound", I've been a bit more attuned to the subtle noises that always accompany silent moments of the day/night. How the disruption happens and how every sound roses from a silence and returns back to it.
It is said that sound, not light, was the first thing and will be the last. To echo that, it is said that sound is the first thing we become aware of in the womb, and it is the last sense to leave us when we die.
Right, right! I've heard of those too. It ups my reverence for sound and the human ears are said to be a really intricate and complex system.
I could make this word shizuka = quiet!
Good 😃
ありがとう せんせい
You know the funny part, these words are not new to me, but I can read them now in hiragana!
Ps I am clueless about grammar though!
PPS, why do we need Kanji or even katakana? If we can write everything in Hiragana? I mean is there a reason? 😂
Compare:
ありがとうせんせい
ありがとう先生
Japanese doesn't use spaces, so there is nothing to tell you where one word ends and another begins. That in mind, kanji becomes invaluable for quick reading and comprehension.
Another fun example
にわにはにわにわとりがいる。
That は is read as わ, making it niwaniwaniwaniwatorigairu
Yikes! Looks fairly nonsensical. At least until we use kanji, which makes it:
庭には二羽鶏がいる。
“There are two chickens in the garden.”
As for Katakana, well, it is a bit like upper and lower case in English. Not strictly necessary, but useful for emphasis, foreign words, and stylistic clarity.
Thank you! Yes, I get it. Yet I am paralyzed when most common resources tells me that I must learn 2000 kanji at a minimum to read basic books!
So my dream of reading “the wild Sheep Chase” or “Kafka on the shore” seems so far fetched that it is unobtainium
Those are no basic books!!
Yeah, I know it looks daunting, but it's not as bad as it seems. There are only 150 or so radicals that make up all the kanji, usually 2-3 radicals put together to make the kanji — so once you learn those radicals, you can more easily read and write the kanji.
What helped me get a handle on a heck of a lot of them was this book:
https://amazon.com/Remembering-Kanji-Complete-Japanese-Characters/dp/0824835921
Basically you learn them by making up a small story that places each radical in the proper place. Sounds like it would be too slow, but it works remarkably well.
Bought! Thank you!
You're welcome!
Brian Wilson could turn anything into musical magic, it was just the way his mind worked. It is funny how those subtle noises we most often tune out do have a rhythmic beauty of their own if we only pay attention. Great haiku!
!DUO
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He was truly one of a kind!
!BBH