Oysters
from A Field Guide to North American Haiku by Charles Trumbull
La luna
Es mar la noche negra:
la nube es una concha,
la luna es una perla . . .José Juan Tablada
The Moon
A sea is the black night
the cloud is a seashell
the moon is a pearl . . .tranlated by Charles Trumbull
The oyster is a bivalve mollusk that thrives in marine or brackish water, typically bays and estuaries. Oysters have been a nutri- tious, plentiful, and staple food in coastal areas around. the world since ancient times. They have been cultivated in China and Japan since at least 2000 B.C., in England and France since Roman times, and in Australia and along the American Atlantic coast from the late 1880s.
The Japanese haiku tradition recognize many terms related to Crassostrea gigas (牡蠣, kaki) the giant Pacific oyster, as kigo, nearly all of them appropriate for winter. Most deal with the har- vesting and consumption of the humble mollusk. . . .
. . .
