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The Mainichi

Haiku Classic: May 4, 2025 -- A yellow you can taste

To hell with names, this flower along the trail is a yellow you can taste -- James W. Hackett (1929-2015). From "Spring Mountains" Winter 2005. Another version of this haiku exists: "The nameless flower / climbing this trail with me / is a yellow you can taste!" But I much prefer the version with "To hell with names"! Almost everything has a name. That is what we humans do -- try to categorize everything in order to understand the world in big brushstrokes and pigeonholes without needing to discover each and every entity anew whenever we encounter it. Such flowers will almost always will have a scientific name in Latin. Saying something is "nameless" usually just means we haven't been bothered to learn its name, and for a haiku poet that shows a lack of inquisitiveness, which is usually not what haiku poets lack! Not caring what the name is and interacting with those flowers face-to-face is far better. This is much like the philosophy of Zen Buddhism. What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet! The synesthesia in this haiku experience, where stimulation of one sense (vision) has led to an involuntary experience in another sense (smell) also points to a Zen perception of the world, without preconceptions. Pique your poetic interest with more Haiku in English here.