And I awake with a snap
Spring clouds bring me hope
In this haiku I attempted to describe Caliban’s do not be afeard speech from act 3 scene 2 of The Tempest. I did this through the lens of a traditional haiku. A traditional haiku has three important components that differentiate it from other kinds of poems. Firstly it must be formatted with a certain number of syllables, In japanese this is significantly more complex as they do not use syllables but instead use a unit called an On which has many more rules related to it. However, since this is written in English I opted instead to use the English syllable based 5-7-5 style. The second aspect is a sharp word at the end of a line. The purpose of this word, known as a Kireji, is to divide the poems lines and thoughts. I used the word snap, as it has a good linkage to snapping awake in the English and also being related to being a part that is snapped off of a greater whole (like Caliban is snapped away from his origins by Prospero). The third part is the use of language that describes the season of the poem, known generally as Kigo. The various seasons have different meanings in Japanese and I opted for the use of spring as it works with many of the aspects of the tempest. These include the storm at the beginning of the play (a common occurrence for spring) and the budding of many plots throughout the play which eventually grow and intertwine. With this in mind I chose serene (which is considered a word associated with spring) as well as spring clouds (which are a singular word in japanese but must be broken up in english). Because of the restrictions placed on the style of the poem I was forced to think about the symbolism that is necessary both within a larger book as well as within the poem. In this way I feel that I represented caliban fairly well. In the beginning Caliban seems like a very simple and almost one dimensional character but as you begin to understand his motives and the reasons behind them he blossoms into a deep and complex character. I feel that the poem reflects this change in caliban as a character. However, I feel that the excessively short poem also takes caliban and only shows one of those facets of his personality. A longer poem may have allowed me to show more of his facets but that may have also diluted the desired impressions as someone who just wants to rest.