ment. 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:
| kareeda ni | On the withered branch |
| karasu no tomarikeri | A crow has alighted— |
| aki no kure | Nightfall in autumn. |
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:
| shizukasa ya | Such stillness— |
| iwa ni shimiiru | The cries of the cicadas |
| semi no koe | Sink into the rocks. |
And sometimes the senses were mingled in a surprising modern way:
| umi kurete | The sea darkens, |
| kamo no koe | The cries of the seagulls |
| honoka ni shiroshi | Are faintly white. |
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;
