Hokku 77 — Summary

At first the question sounds weary: “Is there anything new under the sun?” It echoes an old saying that everything has already happened. But the speaker refuses that mood. “Certainly there is,” he insists, and then he points to the simplest proof: a bird flying, flowers smiling. The poem invites us to see ordinary nature as fresh and alive, not as repetition. The bird’s movement and the flowers’ “smiles” are not grand or rare; they happen all the time, yet the speaker treats them as discoveries. The mood is bright, playful, and full of attention. It suggests that novelty does not require new events—only new eyes. The exclamation mark after “smile” gives the ending a childlike delight. It reads as a small celebration of seeing the familiar world as if for the first time.