haikaiTALKS: wabi-sabi | a saturday gathering under the banyan tree
host: Srinivasa Sambangi
25th January 2025
haikaiTALKS: a saturday gathering under the banyan tree
Your host for haikaiTALKS: Srinivas Sambangi
Wabi Sabi – Are they the same when seen together?
Wabi-Sabi is rather a difficult expression to translate into English. We all read and tried to understand the terms wabi and sabi for their meanings as different words and also together. When we look at them separately, they appear to have a lot of differences, but we rarely see the examples of wabi and sabi as two different aspects in the art forms, including haiku. Over some time, these terms have undergone gradual changes in the way they are perceived.
The historical meaning of wabi is “loneliness, solitude in presence of nature, languishing”. Its current meaning is rustic simplicity, freshness, tranquillity, anomalies/imperfections that are beautiful”
Similarly, the historical meaning of sabi is “wilted, rusted, wizened." Its current meaning is “beauty and calm in what is mature or aged, the pleasure felt in appreciating the imperfect”
Though the terms are and should be referred to distinctly, they are usually combined as wabi-sabi, as both a working description and as a single aesthetic principle. Together, wabi sabi refers to objects or happenings that are imperfect, incomplete, or impermanent. It shows you how embracing imperfections and impermanence frees you to become a better person, by re-evaluating what “better” means… what matters and what you truly want.
Wabi sabi teaches us how to live. The graphical representation of wabi sabi is given below:
So, do you think both wabi sabi are the same when you see them together? Please share your views. You may quote some examples, including your own. Or comment on the following examples
morning snow
I can chew dried salmon
alone
-Basho
cenotaph wind
in a woman’s black hair
dry brown leaf
-Richard Powell
in my hut this spring
there is nothing
there is everything
-Yamaguchi Sodo
References:
Wabi Sabi : The Wisdom in Imperfection by Nobuo Suzuki
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KIGO WORDS
Shall we please try to include a kigo word in all the poems we share here?
Give the season and the word—under your poem.
I'm quoting Lev Hart's request here: "This week’s goal is to compose two verses with toriawase, blending wabi, sabi, karumi, mono no aware, and/or yugen. Tell us which aesthetic concepts you mean to express in a line below the verse. Strive for originality. Avoid stock phrases and shopworn images."
For seasonal references, please check these lists:
“A Dictionary of Haiku Classified by Season Words with Traditional and Modern Methods,” by Jane Reichhold:
indian subcontinent SAIJIKI:
The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words:
The World Kigo Database:
The Yuki Teikei Haiku Season Word List:
**
Thank you for this post, Srinivas.
I hope our poets take the challenge and create a haiku on these lines!
Poets,
Please give your feedback on others' commentary and poems too. _()_
We are continuing haikaiTALKS!
Keep writing and commenting! _kala
#1
rusty gate
bare paddocks under
cottonwool clouds
Lorraine Haig, Aust.
Feedback welcome.
Kigo is bare paddocks which is summer here as it hardly rains at this time.
wabi-sabi. The rusty gate, and the tranquility of the bare paddocks.
flanks to the wind
old mares
the colour of rain
Ron C. Moss
Toriawase, wabi-sabi that shows tranquility and impermanence.
#1 - 26/01/25
elephant seals
moulting in dry sand
balmy breeze
Kanjini Devi, NZ
feedback welcome - wabi-sabi?
Females moult in spring, juveniles in early summer and males in late summer. The kigo (balmy breeze) informs readers we are looking at female elephant seals.
in my hut this spring
there is nothing
there is everything
-Yamaguchi Sodo
The beauty of sabi (impermanent) and wabi (austere) is enhanced in this ku.. The simplicity of hut dwelling, perhaps the poet is poor. Or living as a hermit by choice. But in spring, there is abundance in Nature.
#1, 25/01, edited witha hyphen
autumn light . . .
the worn-out sandpaper
in father's iron toolbox
Lakshmi Iyer, India
Feedback welcome
Wabi-Sabi
Mono no aware