The other day I woke up very early. At the time I felt pretty good, so I decided to stay up. I was proud of myself for getting a head-start on the day.

Boy, did I pay for that later....

up before dawn:
fighting tiredness
all day long

As the day went on, I found it increasingly difficult to focus and eventually to stay awake; if I sat down for even a moment, I started to nod off. As I snapped to for the umpteenth time, I made a mental note to go back to sleep the next time I wake up early.

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Just as the haiku I posted a few days ago, this could be considered a senryū. Whereas haiku primarily focus on nature, senryū focus instead on human folly.

Haiku originated as hokku, the first verse of haikai no renga, a crude, comic form of renga that was popular with the common folk (proper renga was very much a game of the aristocracy). In some sense, that puts the spirit of senryū closer to those first haiku poems than haiku itself.

❦

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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