kooru taki-ni tetsu-no kugi utsu seinen-tachi

--

striking iron nails

into a frozen waterfall

these youths

--

Hiroshi Tagawa (1914-1999). From "Peppermint" (Hakka), Modern Haiku Association (of Japan), Tokyo, 1982.

The bitter cold of winter has frozen a waterfall completely solid! Several young people are hammering iron nails into the vertical face of the waterfall, perhaps in an attempt to climb it? The juxtaposition of "youths" with the concept of hammering nails into water, frozen for now but destined to become aqueous and free again once spring arrives, is what makes this haiku a classic. Nothing done in youth is futile.

Selected, translated and commented on by Dhugal J. Lindsay

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Pique your poetic interest with more Haiku in English here.