Evenings have gotten louder as we approach autumn. I wrote this haiku the other night.

I sit and listen
to the insects talking
this evening

^{Evening in Nara by Yoshida Hiroshi}

It's a common topic for autumn, one you've probably seen in my haiku before. Since I try to write haiku everyday, a lot of subjects get repeated as I try to think of better ways to say what I want to say.

By the traditional Japanese reckoning, we are already into autumn. If you want to know exactly, we are into Hakuro (白露) which is the first small season (sekki) of mid-autumn.

The cicada are still around during the day, but they have mostly faded in the evening, allowing us to hear different insects, chief among them the bell cricket. There are many season words (kigo) referring to the evening insects of around this time. mushi no koe (insect voices) may be one of the more common ones. suzumushi (bell cricket) itself is also one. The evening insect noise has been beloved since ancient times. Sei Shonagon, in her Pillow Book (published in 1002), famously referred to the evening insects as being one of the reasons why evenings are the best time of day during autumn.

日入りはてて、風の音、蟲のねなンど、いとあはれなり
When the sun has sunk, oh how enchanting to hear the sound of the wind in the growing darkness and the songs of autumn insects.

As a barbaric American, I never really paid much attention to this before coming to Japan. But once I was keyed into it, it really jumps out at you. Winter is quiet, spring is also quiet in the evening, summer is loud with the cicadas and maybe a cricket here and there when the cicada aren't around, but then in autumn all the other insects start talking. It really is quite lovely and you can understand why Japanese poets throughout the ages have focused on it.

❦

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.

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