Page:Japanese Literature (Keene).pdf/52

40 . But any sudden perception may lead to this state; it was the appearance of the morning star which gave enlightenment to Buddha himself, according to Zen believers.

The images used by Bashō in capturing the moment of truth were most often visual, as in the haiku about the frog, or the equally famous: This verse presents so sharp an image that it has often been painted. But Bashō did not rely exclusively on visual images; the moment might equally well be perceived by one of the other senses: And sometimes the senses were mingled in a surprising modern way: As these examples indicate, the haiku, for all its extreme brevity, must contain two elements, usually divided by a break marked by what the Japanese call a “cutting word” (kireji). One of the elements may be the general condition—the end of autumn, the stillness of the temple grounds, the darkening sea—and the other the momentary perception. The nature of the elements varies, but there should be the two electric poles between which the spark will leap for the haiku to be effective;