9/28/2007

dreaming butterflies

  
  









dreaming to be
reborn in paradise ...
winter butterflies














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Chuang Tzu dreamed that he was a butterfly.
All day long, he floated on the breeze
Without a thought of who he was or where he was going.

When he awoke, Chuang Tzu became confused.

"Am I a Man”, he thought, "who dreamed that I was a butterfly?
Or am I butterfly, dreaming that I am a man?
Perhaps my whole waking life is but a moment in a butterfly's dream!.

This is a story of transformation."

Butterfly and Haiku


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Thanks to carol raisfeld for the inspiration !
HH, Members Only




Winter butterfly, a KIGO


Read my Haiku Archives 2007


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11 comments:

Gabi Greve said...

WhooooHooo --
I'm bowled over by this one, Gabi.
It's a fusion of eastern and western butterfly symbolism.

...

Gabi, your haiku is stunning!
I'm bowled over too!

...

Thanks my friends for the encouragement to put this together ...

GABI

Anonymous said...

Übersetzung von Richard Wilhelm:

"Einst träumte Dschuang Dschou, dass er ein Schmetterling sei, ein flatternder Schmetterling, der sich wohl und glücklich fühlte und nichts wusste von Dschuang Dschou.

Plötzlich wachte er auf: da war er wieder wirklich und wahrhaftig Dschuang Dschou.

Nun weiss ich nicht, ob Dschuang Dschou geträumt hat, dass er ein Schmetterling sei, oder ob der Schmetterling geträumt hat, dass er Dschuang Dschou sei, obwohl doch zwischen Dschuang Dschou und dem Schmetterling sicher ein Unterschied ist.

So ist es mit der Wandlung der Dinge."

anonymous said...

Very nice Gabi.
J. Australia

Anonymous said...

Nice one, Gabi . . . both haiku and photo.
S.

Anonymous said...

I could see that photo as a lovely painting and combined with the verse. Lovely

Of course, as you have presented it , they are nice too

W.

anonymous said...

Ahhhh, how would it be to have a heart-warming butterfly in winter?

lifting my spirits . . .
a butterfly crosses
the winter landscape

Nice photo and haiku, Gabi - forgive me for coming in late on this one. I was remiss. And forgive my uninvited haiku - just popped out when I saw your winter butterfly.
W.

Anonymous said...

Very nice, indeed.
BNY

anonymous said...

Hi Gabi, who dreams to be reborn? the butterfly? I smile...we all smile...but tell me...do butterflies dream? I think this is so lovelly...but you might profit by turning it into a question...as it is...we must make assumptions...at least until we are reborn as butterflies
.. more ...
heian

anonymous said...

There is no substitute for being widely read.
The conflation of Japanese reference for butterfly is lost at the the edge of cultural interface.


To a butterfly

Stay near me - do not take thy flight!
A little longer stay in sight!
Much converse do I find in thee,
Historian of my infancy!
Float near me; do not yet depart!
Dead times revive in thee;
Thou bring’st, gay creature as thou art!
A solemn image to my heart,
My father’s family!
Oh! Pleasant, pleasant were the days,
The time, when, in our childish plays,
My sister Emmeline and I
Together chased the butterfly!
A very hunter did I rush<
Upon the prey: - with leaps and springs
I followed on from brake to bush;
But she, God love her, feared to brush
the dust from off its wings.


-William Wordsworth


Papillon, the one who would break free, Imelda Marcos known as the Steel Butterfly, Bauby's "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" the list goes on...

The butterfly is transformed and breaks free from the earth (dreams), the butterfly embodies the ability to overcome the vicissitudes of life and this is surely common to the majority of cultures.
J.

Anonymous said...

Lovely image and ku Gabi I don't think I have ever seen a winter butterfly.
M.

Gabi Greve said...

Oh, my, what a thread!
A most ethereal poem....lovely. I did not know about butterflies in winter!
Gabi, you have inspired poems and literary learning threads. Thank you.
I love the Basho poem.
wd

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