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HAIKU: Two for the Dung Beetle
Posted: August 15th, 2010, 7:00 am
by Sue Littleton
34.
mighty scarab toils
pushing sun across the sky
hail the dung beetle
35.
sturdy black beetle
merrily rolls her ball of dung
ex-scared scarab
After observing the dung beetle, the ancient Egyptians believed that the sun was rolled across the sky by a celestial dung beetle. All those jade, lapis and other carved scarabs? Dung beetles.
Posted: August 16th, 2010, 12:21 am
by justwalt
heaven above
with sky
in love
walt
Posted: August 16th, 2010, 6:12 pm
by Sue Littleton
A lovely response to a less than lovely haiku, Walter! Your inspiration is my delight. ♥
Posted: August 16th, 2010, 8:50 pm
by justwalt
well... that response was heavily editted.
what you see are the positive notes...
which just happen to work "as is", meaning
i like the haiku.
my left brain wanted to say this...
Scarab dung beetles lay eggs in a pellet which they roll along, and the Egyptians regarded this action as an image of the sun and its course through the [heavens], rolled by a gigantic beetle.
The scarab represents the Egyptian god, Khepri. It was Khepri that pushed the sun across the [sky].
The scarab beetle became an ancient Egyptian symbol for rebirth, the ability to be reborn. Each day the sun disappeared, always to rise again and be reborn the following day.
so, in the haiku, sky and heaven are are surely
synonymous. but spiritually, they are quite not.
that the whole conception celebrates rebirth is a
testiment to the anchient's attention to detail.
walt
Posted: August 17th, 2010, 9:02 pm
by Sue Littleton
Hi, Justwait! Since I grew up in Texas watching dung beetles roll their marbles around the cow lot, discovering that the myth of the Egyptian scarab and the lowly Texas dung beetle shared a history delighted me.
Thank you for your careful and erudite comments -- I did not include the god's name in either haiku, I should perhaps write a third haiku expressing the godhead and referring to rebirth and Heaven. All that in a 5-7-5 format stuns me into dung beetle silence. However, I like a challenge!
Sue ♥♥♥
Posted: August 17th, 2010, 9:57 pm
by justwalt
a trilogy... sounds spiritual.
the egyptian icon is the winged scarab pushing the sun...
Khepri and the scarab are one, but with separate duties.
this means your haiku is true to itself...
i shall kick myself directly, thrice.
the link is a page of art for the mood.
http://www.fractalspirit.com/EgyptianGallery1.htm
Posted: August 18th, 2010, 4:43 am
by Sue Littleton
Thanks for the link -- simply beautiful! Sue ♥