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Saturday, August 09, 2008

the man's child

一茶1810年
人の子や鵜を遊する草の花
hito no ko ya u wo asobasuru kusa no hana

David's English
the man's child
tends to the cormorant...
wildflowers
Or: "cormorants." Japanese fishermen use cormorants. Tied to a tether, these sea birds dive for fish that they are forced to disgorge. The verb asobasuru, which I initially thought had to do with playing, means "attend to" in this context, according to Shinji Ogawa.

sakuo haiga
The father fisherman let the bird work very hard.
The son of fisherman innocently plays with the bird.
Both belong to human characteristic.

2 comments:

Pris said...

I really love this followup to the other haiga!

Unknown said...

Thank you Pris san for your kind word.

sakuo.