After years of not understanding the appeal of haiku, I finally got into
it, and started to try writing my own. You may regard the following as me
shamelessly exploiting the characters in Ranma 1/2 in order to have
something to write about. I tried to stay in character: judge for
yourselves how well I succeeded. All in all, it was a fun exercise. Any
comments are welcome, whether to the list or to me at elbju@yahoo.se.
The premise is this:
A literary magazine of Tokyo has announced a haiku contest. There is a
chance to win a fair amount of money (enough, let's say, for a trip to
China). Each participant is allowed to submit up to three haiku.
The theme this year is rain.
For some reason word of this particular contest gets around a lot, and
most of the regular cast of Ranma 1/2 get inspired to write something.
This is the results. It is doubtful whether they all went ahead and
submitted what they wrote, though - it is even more doubtful whether one
of them actually won.
Disclaimer: Rumiko Takahashi created and owns all of the characters of
Ranma 1/2. Their use here as potential poets is completely unauthorized
and is for entertainment purposes only.
A Haiku Contest by Elin Bjurvald
A duck flaps its wings,
And the bike topples over:
It rains where I live.
(Ranma)
Murmur of the rain:
I would prefer to hear it
From inside the house.
(Ukyo)
The raindrops sound harsh
Underneath my umbrella.
I will not let go.
(Ryoga)
Going home from market,
I hold it over my wife;
The small umbrella.
(Genma)
The tiny pig squeals,
Two meters from its mother,
In the pouring rain.
(Akari)
If only the rain
Wouldn't come so damn sudden!
Then I could stand it.
(Ranma)
Some people are wise,
And they carry umbrellas.
But others get drenched.
(Akane)
The rain's rattling down -
My love, should I get out there
And bring you cover?
(Mousse)
8. Rain no beat Shampoo!
Under tarpaulin, I ride
On bike, everywhere!
(Shampoo)
To the parched earth,
The rain that falls is really
The Water of Life.
(Akane)
Ah! To have a home
With strong walls, full of people,
While the rain whips down!
(Soun)
They're laughing and splashing,
The children on the sidewalk.
So I cross the street.
(Ryoga)
The gentle spring rain,
With its melancholy feel,
Brings customers in!
(Ukyo)
Rain on my glasses-
The world around me dissolves,
And I do the same.
(Mousse)
No use complaining-
But after eight days of rain,
I sigh for my shoes.
(Nabiki)
The true martial artist,
At peace with his surroundings,
Smells the wet bamboo.
(Genma)
It's all that I hear,
Underneath my umbrella:
The sound of the rain.
(Ryoga )
Kicking off her shoes,
She leaps into the spring rain-
That girl's poor mother!
(Kasumi)
The spring rain falls down,
it tears and tugs at my heart.
But I have to cook.
(Ukyo)
As long as it falls
On someone else, and not me -
I'm happy with it.
(Ranma - after being urged to
find _something_ good with the rain)
In soft summer rain,
I am walking happily,
Sneezing happily.
(Akane)
Bonus I:
After completing her one haiku, Shampoo gets tired of the whole genre.
Instead, she goes off and writes a twelve-line poem in Chinese on the
same subject.
'The rain falls often
in my home country.
It falls on the roofs,
it falls in the orchards.
It drenches the fields,
and floods the high roads,
and falls on the springs
in the Valley of Sorrow.
A land full of dangers,
I think of it often.
The rain here is different,
But also the same.'
(Apparently, it doesn't rain much, generally, in the Qinghai province in
the real world. But I don't think that applies to Takahashi's version.)
Bonus II:
And suddenly, there was another haiku, one that had nothing to do with
rain:
Is that Mount Fuji
Or a different mountain
That looks just like it?
(Ryoga - most probably)
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