Quartering
in Haikus
By
Pearse Wolfe Liblong
First Quarter:
When
I had fallen
You
were my saviour, lifting
Only
to drop me.
This haiku represents how Chiyo (the
narrator) was swept off of her feet in a time of need by Mr. Tanaka only to
have him betray her and sell her and her sister off to the highest bidder. This
haiku also expresses her profound disappointment in the breaching of her trust,
which is why I chose to write it in the first person.
Second Quarter:
Water
finds a way
Around
the tallest mountains
The
clock strikes midnight.
This haiku is about Chiyo’s flexibility in
the face of adversity; her being the water, flowing around obstacles, and the
mountains being the enormous problems in her life. The clock striking midnight
is about when she first met the Chairman. He was the first one to show any real
compassion towards her since she arrived in Gion and yet, unfortunately, their
meeting was very short-lived.
Third Quarter:
Gaining
momentum
Quasimodo,
not the Prince
Fires
extinguished.
The first line in this haiku is about
Sayuri’s career. As time goes on, she becomes more and more successful and
receives a record-setting for her mizuage. The second line is about how Mr.
Nobu, a physically unattractive man (Quasimodo), is courting her, instead of
her love, the Chairman (the Prince). Finally, the third line is about how her
nemesis, Hatsumomo (the fire), has gone crazy and left the okiya.
Fourth Quarter:
Revenge
overdue
Wounded
hearts bleed love no more
Horrors
are over.
In this final haiku, the first line is
about Pumpkin’s revenge on Sayuri. The second line represents how Sayuri and
the Chairman finally come together and confess their love for each other. And
then the third line is a “happily ever after”, with the horrific period of her
life being over, with a tie-in to the quote “Oh the horror…the horror…” (Kurtz,
from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now) using an allusion.
Sources:
Memoirs
of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
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