Four Semi-Haiku about The Fall
Autumn reflections are a another experiment again. But unlike my last article, “Terra Dystopia,” which was analytical, this one is nothing more than a fiction, just another thought experiment.
Disclaimer: These texts are fictional creations. While they may reflect real-world themes, any resemblance to persons, apples or wasps—living or gone—is purely coincidental.
I’m not a poet, and I don’t know much about the noble art form of haiku. [1] But good haiku always captivate me, and it’s tempting to try one or two myself. Until now, I’ve mostly tried this graphically.
We have often talked about the nature of xieyi-painting [2] which captures the spirit or essence of an object, and good haiku do that in a literary way. Aware of my literary shortcomings, I at least tried to give the lines meaning in my own way. I also attempted to do calligraphy for these four texts. But it became painfully clear to me that neglecting calligraphy this year has taken its toll. I will write a few more words about the calligraphy part in the last section of this article.
Four Semi-Haiku
Here are four semi-haiku that came to me recently. The first three came to me spontaneously after a restless night, and I didn’t hange them but wanted to keep her spontaneity. The fourth one was a more interesting process; I worked on it several times and was more and more satisfied with each version. As always: The artworks are my own original creations, painted or written by hand. The framing and backgrounds are composed digitally.
Koan 1: The Apple
Old and wrinkled,
it rests in the orange late-summer sun.
Only wasps delight in the sweetness of its decay. [3]
苹果
老旧起皱, 躺在橘色的晚夏阳光里, 只有黄蜂, 陶醉于腐烂的甜味
Koan 2: The Poker Player
So many marked cards pulled from his sleeve.
Now the cloth is threadbare, and the cards are plain to see.
No one wants to play with him anymore.
牌手
袖中藏, 无数千记牌, 如今布已磨损, 牌面一目了然, 无人再与他同桌
Grass script (草书) on the left, standard Chinese script (楷书) on the right. – Computer font
Koan 3: The Old King
The children flee from him, shunning his bitter smell.
Only the court jesters remain, praising his new clothes.
老国王
孩童们逃离他, 惧怕他腐败的气味, 只剩下那些弄臣, 赞美他的新衣
Koan 4: Shine and Ashes
This last poem was harder and came two days later. I first tried to put too many ideas into it; I had to reduce, aiming to be both more abstract and more concrete.
Shine and Ashes
Gray paint hides his face,
orange dreams fade into ash—
laughter turns to stone.
光辉与灰烬 (橙梦之尘)
灰颜遮面， 橙梦化灰烬，笑声成顽石。
An earlier version of this poem looked like this (and hints at a mirror in the image):
He sits at the mirror,
not painting a smile
but wiping away the white
of every laugh he once owned.
I originally started with a title fixed in my mind, “Death of a Clown,” from an old Kinks song. So the image of a clown came to me, alone, removing his makeup one last time and thinking about his career.
I was surprised—and horrified—to find that a certain office now requires new picture frames. Our image would then be framed like this:
About my calligraphy examples
Writing good calligraphy takes time. It’s exactly like a pianist learning a new piece; you only get to creativity and artistic expression after a lot of practice.
So what I’m showing here are just the first steps. But they served their purpose for this article, and I probably won’t continue working on them. If I had the time to perfect all four, autumn might be over before I finished, or the theme would have changed its meaning. 🙂
In a recent article on Abundance of Modesty, we briefly looked at the oldest Chinese writing style, Jia Gu Wen. The calligraphy in this pieces uses the most recent style, Grass Script (Cǎoshū 草书). Whether it’s the oldest or the newest, if you haven’t studied it extensively, you won’t be able to read or write it, even as a native Chinese speaker. It’s not just about the order of every single dot or stroke; a writer also has to keep the overall composition and aesthetic appeal in mind.
I attempted calligraphy for each of the four haiku, which is why I’ve included the Chinese text. I had to ensure the Chinese text—especially the title—was accurate and fitting. For example, “橙梦之尘” (Orange Dream Dust) works perfectly, both literally and poetically.
footnotes
[1] A haiku is a traditional Japanese poem composed of three phrases with a 5-7-5 syllable structure. It often uses a kigo (a word related to a specific season) and a kireji (a “cutting word”) to connect two images or ideas and create a particular mood.
[2] Xieyi (literally “writing ideas”) is a freehand style of Chinese painting that aims to capture the spirit or essence of a subject, rather than focusing on a literal or realistic depiction. It prioritizes emotional expression over perfect representation.
[3] Rotting fruit releases alcohol during the fermentation process. Wasps love it, and you can sometimes see them flying away in a dazzling array.
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