In spring rain
a pretty girl
yawning.
Translated by Robert Hass
Everything but the girl is in bloom at spring time, specially when the rain pours, unexcited and filled with lulling sound she yawns...
A pretty girl is yawning to give signal that she is ready to enjoy the sleep. This pretty girl may be yawning to show the rain that by the time the land is dry, she will wet herself.
haiku isolates a particular group of phenomena from all the rest.. and its peculiar quality is its self-effacing, self-annihilative nature, by which it enables us to grasp the thing-in-itself.. The pretty girl (she could have been not pretty at all - but the fact is that she is so) can't go out and enjoy her staying with friends, because of the rain.. A boring time for her.. we can imagine her looking out of the window, hoping the rain will stop soon..
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
makes you wonder- -why is it a pretty girl who is yawning in the rain? would a plain girl not yawn? hmmmm, this requires some thought