166Haiku 俳句
名月を取ってくれろと泣く子かな
めいげつをとってくれろとなくこかなMeigetsu o totte kurero to naku ko kana
“"Catch me the moon!" cries the child.”
The meaning
The child wants the moon, and the impossible wish is pure. The poem smiles at our outsized wishes — and keeps tenderness intact for those who dare make them.
At the origin
A haiku by Kobayashi Issa, attentive father and poet of the everyday.
The characters
- 名月 meigetsuharvest moon
- を o(object)
- 取って tottecatch, take
- くれろ
- と
- 泣く
- 子
- かな
をParticleMarks the object: what the action falls upon.
In practice
Listen to an impossible wish — yours or another's — without mocking it.