Cicada (semi)

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Cicada (semi, Japan)

***** Location: Japan, other areas
***** Season: Various, see below
***** Category: Animal

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Explanation



Cicada are ubiquious animals during the Japanese summer and their song fills the air everywhere, especially among the cherry trees in temple and shrine compounds.

They come in many varieties with many differernt songs, so let us look at some cicada kigo. Unless mentioned below, they are all
kigo for late summer.


cicada being born, semi umaru　蝉　生まる　
..... This and the following two are kigo for early summer .



Click on photo for more detailed pictures by Gabi Greve.

pine-tree semi, matsusemi (matsuzemi) 松蝉
spring cicada, harusemi (haruzemi) 春蝉

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.. .. .. cicada, locust, semi 蝉

first cicada, hatsu-semi 初蝉
voiceless cicada, female cicada、oshizemi　唖蝉

cicada in the morning, asazemi 朝蝉
cicada in the evening, yuuzemi 夕蝉
cool cicada, semi suzushi 蝉涼しい
..... in the evening, their song provides the feeling of coolness.

oil cicada, aburasemi (aburazemi)
..... Graptopsaltria nigrofuscata 油蝉. Her song makes a sizzeling sound of frying food.

min-min cicada, minminsemi (minminzemi)
..... Oncotympana maculaticollis みんみん蝉
..... cicada in deep mountais, miyamazemi 深山蝉

nii-nii cicada, niiniisemi (niiniizemi)
..... Platypleura kaempferri にいにい蝉

bear cicada, kumazemi 熊蝉　Cryptotympana japonensis
..... a particularly large variety with a black back, see below.


Cicada from Hokkaido, Ezosemi 蝦夷蝉
.... Ezo is the old name of Hokkaidoo.

Princess Spring Cicada, hime haru zemi 姫春蝉

She is the incarnation of a princess, who fell in love with Kooboo Daishi. When he realized this unfulillable love, he carved a statue of himeself out of wood, placed it in the garden of her parents and left the village. The next morning, the poor princess climbed the statue to try and see her beloved priest, but could not. In pain, she started to cry and there she is till our day, crying and crying and crying...
http://ed.city.kasama.ibaraki.jp/~kasamaj/minwa/ue/minwa8.htm

Read more about Kukai, Kobo Daishi .

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cicada chorus, (lit. cicada winter sleet) semi shigure 蝉時雨
..... it does NOT mean cicadas in a real rain shower. It refers to the shrill sound many cicada make all at once.


catching cicadas, semi tori 蝉捕り (せみとり）


semi no koe 蝉の声 （せみのこえ）
lit. "voice of a cicada".
Various translations are possible, as can be seen from some haiku samples below.

READ ALSO : Voice of animals and
their translation in haiku

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slough, molt, skin, empty cicada hull, utsusemi 空蝉
semi no kara, 蝉の殻
semi no monuke, 蝉の蛻
semi no nukegara, 蝉のぬけがら



"Utsusemi" is also the name of a character in the "Tales of Genji".
The first Chinese character, 空蝉, means "emptyness" or the sky. Symbolically it is used for the frail life of humans in this world and often used in Japanese waka poems.


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"Bear Cicada", kumasemi, kumazemi 熊蝉
Cryptotympana facialis



熊蝉のじっと佇む風格よ

©　PHOTO and Haiku
shige.shashin-haiku.jp

.....

Cicadas attack Japanese fiber optic cables

There is another amazing battle in Kansai this summer - NTT West Corporation VS cicadas.

"Kuma zemi (Kuma cicada)", which lives mainly in West Japan and whose body length is 6 - 7 cm, is the biggest cicada in the world. It is also said that buzzing volume of cicadas is the biggest in Osaka (as well as the people's voice volume).

In recent years, "Kuma zemi" misunderstands the optical fiber cables as dead branches and tries to lay eggs by sticking its ovipositor into the cables. A serious disconnection has been caused, and more than 1,000 damages have been reported in West Japan.

NTT West Corporation keeps developing a new type of cables, and their latest product is the cable with fiber protective barriers.

Cicada, known as the king of noise in summer, seems to be becoming the world's first IT insect pest.

Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
Buzz buzz buzz buzz...

(aco)
© Hotwire Magazine Editors


I saw a special on TV about this, it is quite amazing how the mother cicada pierces the strong cables to insert her eggs!
Gabi Greve, August 2007

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kigo for autumn

cicada in autumn, aki no semi 秋の蝉 (あきのせみ)
..... autumn cicadas, shuusen 秋蝉 (しゅうせん)
This kigo brings out the sadness and appreciation of the near death of this animal.


remaining cicadas, nokoru semi 残る蝉 (のこるせみ)



"day-darkener", clear toned cicada, higurashi 蜩 (ひぐらし)
Tanna japonensis


monk-cicada, hooshisemi (hooshizemi) 法師蝉
.. .. .. tsuku-tsukuーbooshi ツクツクボウシ



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Worldwide use

Croatia

Cvrchak "cvrchi"

In Croatian the name for semi is cvrèak (cvrchak), and for the cricket "zrikavac" or "shturak", also "crn-bel". This last specially for autumn time.
There is a very famous poem about "cvrchak" -semi of Vladimir Nazor, and about "crn-bel" (the cricket in autumn) of Fran Galovic.

Tomislav Maretic



Look at more cicada photos from the island "Drvenik Mali" near Trogir.
by Tomislav Maretic
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/worldkigo/album?.dir=/2ed1&.src=ph

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North America

Cicada is a flying, plant sucking insect that emerges in period cycles. Nymphs suck juices from roots of plants. Egg laying females cause significant damage to trees during their brief, adult stage. They are not harmful to humans. Counter to some rumors, they do not bite, nor do they often land on a human or animal.

The adult Cicadas' entire purpose in life is to mate and produce offspring. You can hear the males' mating "song" from early morning to nightfall. In heavily infested areas, the noise can be quite disturbing. About five to ten days after mating, the female lands on twigs of deciduous trees, cuts slits in them, and lays her eggs in the slit.

Adults do not eat. Rather, damage to trees is caused by the adult female as she cuts slices in twigs to lay her eggs. Shortly after mating, the male Cicada dies.
The eggs hatch, producing tiny nymphs that fall to the ground. These nymphs burrow into the soil and feast on underground roots. They remain there for years, slowly growing, until their periodic cycle calls them to emerge again as adults.
http://www.gardenersnet.com/atoz/cicada.htm


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Dogday cicada / Dog Day Cicada
large American cicada (Cicada pruinosa), which trills loudly in midsummer.
. . . CLICK here for Photos !

They produce their highest pitch trills at hottest hours of the day when sun is at its highest position.

waking up
with a dogday cicada
- another hangover

Camilla Sayf, Kigo Hotline Forum 2009


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Things found on the way

Musings about the coming of autumn

by susan delphine delaney, plano, texas

to me, the coming of the cicada, and its friends the crickets, who are now swarming to doors, is an infallible sign that autumn and cool are coming.

the sunsets are now tinged with the dusky purple of autumn many nights, and the geckos have started to come inside (even though it is still 100 degrees farenheit outside).

the orb weaver spiders have begun to spin their giant webs across the sidewalk where they make an audible sound when you walk into them.

and best of all, the skies are showing cirrus clouds, made of tiny particles of ice. it is 100 degrees down here, but high in the atmosphere, ice has returned.

the cloudforms are complex, with the clouds of summer (medium high, tall) and autumn (low, moisture filled, and the high cirrus) all in the same day, all at the same time.

the earth has tipped and the relief from this heat is getting closer.

... WHCworldkigo/


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HAIKU

閑かさや岩にしみ入る蝉の声
shizukasa ya iwa ni shimiiru semi no koe

extreme quietude -
the shrilling of cicadas
seeps into rocks

Matsuo Basho
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

See also: Haikutopics: the voice of animals


koe ni mina nakishimaute ya semi no kara

The shell of a cicada:
It sang itself
Utterly away.

Basho, trans. Blyth


More haiku about the cicada shell ...
Compiled by Larry Bole

"monuke" in addition to meaning the shed skin of an insect, can also mean a "place left behind".


ware to waga kara ya tomurau semi no koe

Mourning over its dead body,
And over itself--
The voice of the cicada.

Yayu, trans. Blyth


utsu semi wa moto no hadaka ni modorikeri

Empty cicada shell:
as we come
we go back naked.

Fukaku (death poem), trans. Hoffmann


furuike ya sakasa ni ukabu semi no kara

an old pond-
floating upside down
a cicada's shell

Shiki, trans. Kim Komurasaki


utsu-semi ya kono mi hitotsu ni ku wo atsume

a cicada's shell -
in this single body
pains accumulate

Masajo (1955), trans. Susumu Takiguchi


Cicada shells and dewdrops, two items easily to be observed (shasei) in rural Japan and also metaphors for the Buddhist world view of change and rebirth.


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Issa has more than 40 haiku about the cicada.

聞倦て人は去也枝の蝉
kiki aite hito wa saru nari eda no semi

tired of listening
the man walks away...
cicada on a branch

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蝉時雨蝶は日やけもせざりけり
semi shigure chô wa hiyake mo sezari keri

cicada song pouring down--
for the butterfly too
no sunburn

http://cat.xula.edu/issa/searchissa.php?haiku_id=382.05a

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草の葉やたっぷりぬれて蝉の鳴
kusa no ha ya tappuri nurete semi no naku

leaves of grass--
utterly drenched the cicada
sings

Tr. David Lanoue

semi shigure,
The shrill sound of a thousand cicadas in a temple garden envelops us as if it was a kind of rain, as explained above in the kigo introduction. But it does not bring any wetness, although it can make us shiver indeed with its intensity. Sometimes the whole body seems to vibrate with the intense shrilling.

shigure itself, a shower or drizzlel is a kigo for early winter.
WHC World Kigo Database: Rain in various kigo ••

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秋の蝉大樹の下の力石
aki no semi taiki no shita no chikara ishi

autumn cicadas -
below the large tree
the power stones

渡辺僚子 Watanabe Ryooko
Power Stones


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みんみんの峠を越えし風呂敷よ
minmin no tooge o koeshi furoshiki yo

I crossed the pass
with the minmin cicadas -
oh this furoshiki !

Kunitake Izayoi 国武十六夜
Tr. Gabi Greve

Furoshiki and Haiku


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hatsu semi ya mune no oku made hibiki ori

first cicada -
deep into the heart
your reveberations
.

erste Zikaden -
bis tief ins Herz
vibriert alles

.. .. ..

entering life
with a shout of joy
a thousand cicadas

I woke up at sunrise, the whole valley seemed to be steeped in this shrill sound, you could almost see it.
The joy of coming out of the cocoon into life all at the same morning, that is always only one morning every year... whow !

Gabi Greve, 2004
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/happyhaiku/message/1785
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/happyhaiku/message/212


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futatsu ite hitotsu wa nakazu aki no semi

There were two there;
One didn't sing.
Cicadas of autumn.

Matsumoto Koyuu-Ni 松本古友尼

Tr. Blyth


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five-seven-five-stop
the cicada so shrill
the sky shouts loudly
(tr. Gabi Greve)

fuenf-sieben-fuenf-stop
Still erklingt die Zikade
Laut schreit der Himmel

Wolf
http://www.hsv-forum.de/forum/showthread.php?t=36476

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Cicada from Croatia

driving down
the mountain to the sea
first cicadas

sudden shower
the cicada's orchestra
ceases their song

mosquito's buzzing
till the first cicada's song
oh, my sleeplessness

when I approach
the cicada's song slows down
when I leave, it speeds up

soundless cicada
slowly approaching
to the singing one

through the cicada's
wings you can see
the remote islands

on the olive-tree
an ant goes round
the singing cicada

a caught cicada --
chirping can be heard
from my hand

cicada in the sea .
saved thanks to little boy
in his rubber-ring

good by cicadas !
our meeting next year
on the same place

Tomislav Maretic

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dog days -
even the cicada complains
from the shade



Haiku and Photo © by Carol Raisfeld
http://home.alc.co.jp/db/owa/ph_diary?stage=show&diary_sn_in=215

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crying
as it’s dragged away by ants-
cicada in autumn

rota hua
cheentiom se khincha jaa raha -
pathjhad me jheengor

Masaoka Shiki, tr. into Hindi
Angelee Deodhar


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Related words

***** Insects (mushi) Autumn insects, aki no mushi, Japan

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http://worldkigodatabase.blogspot.com/

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