Haiku Again…..From Story To Haiku Part III

Those who wish to read the earlier Posts I & II can read here and here

Ryokan was a very poor Japanese monk. It is said that he was so poor that even the robe that he wore was all tattered and torn. One fine evening, when he returned to his tiny hut he had a feeling that someone was there before. He opened the door to find that a thief had visited his hut and taken away whatever little he had.

Ryokan was sad…. very sad. He entered the hut and opened the window to find a large, round moon smiling down at him from the sky. As the moonshine spread on the floor of his mud hut his heart was filled with happiness and the sadness of being robbed was replaced by immense joy. It is said that he was so happy that he said, “If the thief had come to the hut to steal when I was here, I would have even given away the robe to him that I wear.”

But why was Ryokan so happy to see the moon? He was happy because the thief, who stole everything from his hut, could not steal the moon from the window. And why could the thief not steal the moon from the window? Because it is a gift from God and whatever God gifts us – the sun, the moon, the stars – can anyone steal these from us?

So Ryokan, happy that he was, wrote a haiku

the thief left it behind

                      the moon

             at the window

This is a true story, needless to say, a beautiful one….

But what was more interesting were the questions that I had to face after I finished with my story.

“Who would rob a moon, now?”

True! Who would rob a moon when there is no price tag attached to it!

“Why would it be left at the window?”

Again! Moon is a moon is a moon. It is always there shining up in the sky. Taken for granted. How can it be left at the window?

Children ask funny questions. And the adults are funnier who cannot make them understand what’s so precious about the moon being left at the window…