つくつくぼうし
8 poems of a late-summer cicada.
in 8 of the 701 poems of Sōmokutō
- this journey, this endless journey — a cicada cryingThe Begging Bowl
- having parted and walked on a cicada cryingThe Begging Bowl
- grown old I long for home a cicada cryingThe Begging Bowl
- here am i, and the cicada crying, one whole dayWalking Mountains, Walking Waters
- a cicada crying too close a cicadaWalking Mountains, Walking Waters
- just four or five trees out back and a cicada singingFrom Journey to Journey
- on the journey a telegraph pole in the evening light — a tsukutsukubōshiA Landscape of Weeds
- tsukutsukubōshi crying tsukutsukubōshiPersimmon Leaves
The cicada whose voice closes the summer. It goes on crying, unchanged, inside the poem. “Tsukutsukubōshi crying tsukutsukubōshi.”