TWO HUNDRED SELECTED HAIKU
Matsuo Basho Translated by Dr Tim Chilcott - 94,95,96
Dear friends,
Let me share a picture of my own. Have you ever seen these halos around the sun? A couple of days ago, while on my 10 km walk along the West Pier, I saw one. They are beautiful, and I much prefer my picture to the ones available on Unsplash. Halos are an interesting phenomenon.
A halo (from Ancient Greek hálōs, meaning 'threshing floor disk') is an optical phenomenon produced by light (typically from the Sun or Moon) interacting with ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere. It has indeed been cold in Dublin this past week, and I can see how the conditions were right for their formation. If it was cold at my level, how much colder must it be up there in the cirrostratus clouds?
Halos are formed when light refracts (bends) and reflects off hexagonal ice crystals, which are often found in high-altitude cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. The orientation and shape of these crystals determine the specific characteristics of the halo observed, so even if you were standing beside me, your halo would be different from mine—a truly personal experience.
Halos are often associated with incoming weather changes. The presence of high cirrus clouds that produce halos can indicate that rain may follow within 24 hours, as these clouds often precede storm systems. It rained all day yesterday, so I didn’t get to walk. Last night was quite windy as well. I never knew this about halos, although this is not the first time I have photographed one.
And as I was looking up information on them, I found out that there is a Beehive cluster of stars. The Beehive cluster has about 1000 stars and is about 730 million years old and lies approximately 577 light-year. And here is a picture from EarthSky.org. And they found two exoplanets in there! Very interesting, and if you want to read a very cool article about those exoplanets here is a paper with a cool title: Two 'b's in the Beehive: The Discovery of the First Hot Jupiters in an Open Cluster
And now Basho. I love how the end of the last one sounds to me contemporary. Which one is your favourite? And why?
94 [Autumn 1689] At a place called Little Pines shiorashiki / na ya komatsu fuku / hagi susuki [lovely / name! small-pine blows /bush-clover pampas] what a lovely name! the wind wafts through young pines, bush clover, pampas grass 95 [Autumn 1689] muzan ya na / kabuto no shita no / kirigirisu [pitiful!! / helmet's underside's / cricket] the pity of it... trapped underneath a helmet a cricket chirping 96 [Autumn 1689] yu no nagori / koyoi wa hada no / samukaran [hot-spring's departure / tonight as-for skin's / cold] leaving the hot springs: tonight my skin will feel so very cool, so cool
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Until next time,
Bee well,
Xanda