Haiku fireflies (9th of December 2010)

firefly, night, grass
Don't go! Don't go!
All their calls are lies
first firefly

(Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue)

When did you last see a firefly? I saw it last time more than 20 years ago. Perhaps the fireflies are extinct? Perhaps this Issa's haiku will soon mean nothing to the new generations that will never see a firefly. Sluggish and wavy movement through the night, stronger and weaker smoldering of cigarette ash carried away by the wind, what? I cannot imagine a firefly together with noise and a city. I imagine firefly with maize roasting, warm night and familiar faces. The faces are young and smiling. That is how I know that it is a memory of a child.

Not only I can see that the fireflies are vanishing. I cite a piece of the article "Scientists See Fewer Fireflies" by Michael Casey from The Washington Posta (31st of August 2008):

It is quite clear they are declining," said Stefan Ineichen, a researcher who studies fireflies in Switzerland and runs a Web site to gather information on firefly sightings. "When you talk to old people about fireflies, it is always the same," he said. "They saw so many when they were young, and now they are lucky now if they see one."
firefly, grass, night
Don't go firefly!
Even at night Kyoto
is noisy

(Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue)

Firefly is a frequent motif in haiku poetry, also because haiku relies on "keywords" to emphasize a season in question. But, of all haiku on fireflies that I read, Issa's are by far the best ones. Therefore, it is not strange that the both haikus I decided to illustrate were written by Issa. Issa stands out strongly among all the haiku poets that I know. His haiku is on the border of humor and tragedy, pain and comedy, bitterness and sweetness. That is how life is so I think about Issa as a man with strong feeling of life. Besides, life did not spare him and that may be the reason for his strong poetry (see >> Wikipedia's article on Kobayashi Issa).

By the way, fireflies are, as all insects, particularly repugnant when seen up close. In my construction of reality, firefly is just a meandering tube filled with light. The essence of a firefly. Haiku firefly.

UPDATE: (2nd of July, 2014) Yesterday I noticed a firefly and managed to photograph it (see below). I already forgot how they look like.

firefly, Marija Gorica
<< Leonardo's temple, third part Portrait of Rabo Karabekian >>

Last updated on 2nd of July 2014.