On Wed, Aug 15, 2001 at 01:23:33PM +0200, Elin Bjurvald wrote:
After years of not understanding the appeal of haiku, I finally got into
it, and started to try writing my own. You may regard the following as me
shamelessly exploiting the characters in Ranma 1/2 in order to have
something to write about. I tried to stay in character: judge for
yourselves how well I succeeded. All in all, it was a fun exercise. Any
comments are welcome, whether to the list or to me at elbju@yahoo.se.
The premise is this:
A literary magazine of Tokyo has announced a haiku contest. There is a
chance to win a fair amount of money (enough, let's say, for a trip to
China). Each participant is allowed to submit up to three haiku.
The theme this year is rain.
For some reason word of this particular contest gets around a lot, and
most of the regular cast of Ranma 1/2 get inspired to write something.
This is the results. It is doubtful whether they all went ahead and
submitted what they wrote, though - it is even more doubtful whether one
of them actually won.
Heh. And here I was thinking that you were proposing a contest to the
FFML, that we would write haiku with Ranma 1/2 as the topic!
Disclaimer: Rumiko Takahashi created and owns all of the characters of
Ranma 1/2. Their use here as potential poets is completely unauthorized
and is for entertainment purposes only.
A Haiku Contest by Elin Bjurvald
A duck flaps its wings,
And the bike topples over:
It rains where I live.
(Ranma)
Funny, I'd expect more attention to be given to the changes the rain
causes in _himself_, though I suppose he might consider that a rather
personal topic.
Murmur of the rain:
I would prefer to hear it
From inside the house.
(Ukyo)
Ok, this one is nice enough. But why Ukyo? This sounds more like
Kasumi to me.
The raindrops sound harsh
Underneath my umbrella.
I will not let go.
(Ryoga)
Going home from market,
I hold it over my wife;
The small umbrella.
(Genma)
What? Genma being selfless? OOC!!! ;)
The tiny pig squeals,
Two meters from its mother,
In the pouring rain.
(Akari)
Damn, and here I was hoping she'd say something about Ryouga's
curse. She _is_ his girlfriend, after all.
If only the rain
Wouldn't come so damn sudden!
Then I could stand it.
(Ranma)
Some people are wise,
And they carry umbrellas.
But others get drenched.
(Akane)
Ah! A subtle dig at Ranma, comparing him to Ryouga. Too subtle for
Akane, though, I think, if we're still in the main manga
storyline. I'd expect "While bakas get drenched." or something to that
effect.
The rain's rattling down -
My love, should I get out there
And bring you cover?
(Mousse)
Hah! A fat lot of cover his wings are going to provide. Typical blind
Mousse. I like it.
8. Rain no beat Shampoo!
Under tarpaulin, I ride
On bike, everywhere!
(Shampoo)
Well, if she can ride her bike on fencetops and rooftops, I guess a
tarp wouldn't be much more of a hinderence. I'd expect something more,
shall we say, form-fitting from her, though.
To the parched earth,
The rain that falls is really
The Water of Life.
(Akane)
Ah! To have a home
With strong walls, full of people,
While the rain whips down!
(Soun)
You can almost hear the waterworks. Good work.
They're laughing and splashing,
The children on the sidewalk.
So I cross the street.
(Ryoga)
The gentle spring rain,
With its melancholy feel,
Brings customers in!
(Ukyo)
Rain on my glasses-
The world around me dissolves,
And I do the same.
(Mousse)
What, he fell in the pool of drowned Wicked Witch of the West?
No use complaining-
But after eight days of rain,
I sigh for my shoes.
(Nabiki)
The true martial artist,
At peace with his surroundings,
Smells the wet bamboo.
(Genma)
It's all that I hear,
Underneath my umbrella:
The sound of the rain.
(Ryoga )
Kicking off her shoes,
She leaps into the spring rain-
That girl's poor mother!
(Kasumi)
Exactly who is she talking about? Ranma? Is this during one of the
"Ranko Tendo" storylines?
The spring rain falls down,
it tears and tugs at my heart.
But I have to cook.
(Ukyo)
Hmm, I thought okonomyaki was her life. "have to" sounds like it's a
chore.
As long as it falls
On someone else, and not me -
I'm happy with it.
(Ranma - after being urged to
find _something_ good with the rain)
Typical evasion. I wonder how well Ranma would like meeting Douglas
Adams' Rain God.
In soft summer rain,
I am walking happily,
Sneezing happily.
(Akane)
Bonus I:
After completing her one haiku, Shampoo gets tired of the whole genre.
Instead, she goes off and writes a twelve-line poem in Chinese on the
same subject.
'The rain falls often
in my home country.
It falls on the roofs,
it falls in the orchards.
It drenches the fields,
and floods the high roads,
and falls on the springs
in the Valley of Sorrow.
A land full of dangers,
I think of it often.
The rain here is different,
But also the same.'
(Apparently, it doesn't rain much, generally, in the Qinghai province in
the real world. But I don't think that applies to Takahashi's version.)
Hell, if Nerima can go through more than 4 seasons in one year, I see
no reason the precipitation level in China can't go up.
Bonus II:
And suddenly, there was another haiku, one that had nothing to do with
rain:
Is that Mount Fuji
Or a different mountain
That looks just like it?
(Ryoga - most probably)
Who else gets lost like that?
Overall, very nice indeed.