Basho Revisited, departing autumn

In this episode of Basho Revisited I will look for the last time at haiku from Basho's haibun 'The Narrow Road to the Far North'. This verse was the last haiku in his haibun.

hamaguri no   futami ni wakare   yuku aki zo


a clam
torn from its shell
departing autumn

As I wrote above this is the last verse in Basho's 'Oku no Hosomichi' 'The Narrow Road to the Far North'. Because there are several word plays at work here, the Japanese maintain that there is no way for the poem to be rendered into another language. So here goes: hama (beach); hamaguri (a clam) however 'guri' is also (a chestnut) or (a pebble). And that is only the first line! 'Futami' (place name of the port where the famous Wedded Rocks (two large rocks considered to 'married' which are considered to be sacred) are such an attraction) is made up of the words 'futa' (lid, cover, shell) and 'mu' (body, meat, fruit, nut, berry, seed, substance, contents). The word 'wakare' can be either (to part or to split) or (to leave). Added to the last line (departing autumn) 'wakare' can mean either that it is autumn which is leaving or a person who is departing. In Ogaki, Basho was met by many of his disciples, including Sora who rejoined him, for the end of the trip back to Tokyo. This verse, and the second one in 'Oku no Hosomichi' are considered the 'book-ends' of the work with partings of Spring and Autumn. (Source: Jane Reichhold's Old Pond: Basho's (almost) thousand haiku).

wedded rocks

Awesome! Isn't it! This haiku is a masterpiece worthy to enclose his haibun 'Narrow Road' as I read the previous part (the part by Jane Reichhold) again.
I love to write a haiku with the same words, but with the other meaning. That will be the challenge for this episode of Basho Revisited and of course I have to try. No ... I must try.

a pebble-stone
taken from the Wedded Rocks
a farewell gift


autumn has gone
the only thing that remains
a chestnut


a jackstone
broken of the Married Rocks
a farewell gift

wedded rocks

a chestnut
fallen into the grass
departing autumn


on the seashore
the shell of a hermit crab
abandoned

Well ... it wasn't easy, but I think I did well. Are these my masterpieces? Or in Basho's Spirit? I don't know. You, my dear readers, may tell me.

This was the last episode with the haibun 'Oku no Hosomichi' as theme. In the next episodes I will look closer at haiku by Basho.

Sincerely,

Also published for: one single impression

And as an contribution for Poets United Thursday Think Tank

Basho Revisited, winds of autumn

This episode of Basho revisited is the last episode about haiku from Oku no Hosomichi, The Narrow Road to the Deep North. In this part a haiku which wasn't included in Narrow Road, but was written while he was on his journey to the Deep North.
The haiku following now is a nice one and has also a reverence to his homosexuality. It's commonly known that Basho was a homosexual.
While Basho was staying at the Yamanaka Hot Springs, the 14 year old son of the innkeeper, Izumiya Matabel, attracted Basho's attention. He gave the boy the nom the plume Toyo (to = momo = peach) and (yo = the young beauty of). This name has a connection with Basho's earlier nom the plume "Tosei" (green peach) which forms a literary connection between the two, according to Oseka-san. However, other implications arise. Basho didn't choose to include the verse in his official travel journal but it was published in 1698, by Fukaku, a doctor in Kyoto, who made a book of 522 hokku classified into the season.

momo no ki no   sons ha chirasu na   aki no kaze


a peach tree
its leaves aren't scattered
winds of autumn

Credits: Peach tree

When we look closely to this haiku we can see the young boy to whom Basho was attracted, the peach tree, young, his leaves not scattered by the autumn wind. He is strong, this haiku glorifies the young boy and his looks.
It's surely a wonderful haiku with a strong touch of love in it. Basho admires Toyo for his young beauty and maybe ... was in love with him.
But ... his love for Toyo isn't the important item in this haiku. It's the haiku which is important. It's a well balanced haiku and surely one in which Basho's master skills are very clear. I think this is one of his masterpieces.
It will be a challenge to write a new haiku for this episode of Basho Revisited. Can I do that? Will I succeed? Let's give it a try.

a young cherry tree
this spring will be the first
to bloom for Buddha

This was a tough one. It wasn't easy to write this one. It's for sure in the Spirit of Chevrefeuille, but is it also in  Basho's Spirit? You, my dear visitor, may decide that.

This was the last part of Basho Revisited about Oku no Hosomichi  The Narrow Road to the Far North.

In the following episodes I will look closer to other haiku written by Basho.

See you here again next time ...

Basho Revisited, missing someone

Basho's Narrow Road to the Deep North has granted us with a lot of wonderful haiku. Every haiku in this haibun is a little gift, a present to the reader by Basho.
I love every haiku in Narrow Road and every haiku makes me speechless. It fills me with joy and pleasure. Sometimes I write haiku just as Basho, but I will never become as good as him. Basho is One in his kind of writing haiku. And I, Chevrefeuille, can only come close to his skill in writing haiku.
In this series of Basho Revisited I can only try to write in the Spirit of Basho.

It was, in Basho's lifetime, considered an elegant, and delightfully impulsive act to write a verse on a fan and then to tear the fan into two parts so each person would have a keepsake. You can compare this with a common use in our times to break a heart into two parts and give one part to your girlfriend or boyfriend and keep the other part yourself.

mono kai te   ogi hiki saku   nagori kana


writing something
tearing apart the thrown-away fan
missing someone

What an elegant thought to write something on a fan and then break it in two.

a love letter
on a leaf of paper
two hearts in one

Wow! I love this one. Sorry :) Sometimes I am surprised by my own haiku. Besides the inspiration of Basho's haiku I was inspired by my own words in this episode of Basho Revisited. So I think my haiku is in the same tone and sense as the one by Basho.

Sincerely,

Basho Revisited, firefly fire

Matsuo Basho

Following Basho's trail along his Narrow Road to the Deep North I came towards a haiku by him which he wouldn't publish in his haibun 'Oku no Hosomichi' (The Narrow Road to the Deep North), but Sora, a haiku poet who after Basho's death in 1694 published the 'Narrow Road' included this haiku. Sora was also the travel companion of Basho on his Narrow Road, but Sora had to go home somewhere on this journey because he became ill.

This haiku isn't very well known. I haven't read read it in the many published books and anthologies about Basho. I ran into this haiku in Jane Reichhold's 'Old Pond: Basho's (almost) thousand haiku' and loved it very well. Why Basho wouldn't publish this one? I don't know, but I am glad that Sora did include it.

hotaru bi no   hira wa kie tsutsu   hashira kana

firefly fire

disappears at daylight

behind the pillar

Credits: firefly

In my opinion this is a haiku in the same strong tone and sense as his well known 'Old Pond' and it has to become a well known haiku. I hope with this episode of Basho Revisited that this haiku becomes as famous as 'Old Pond'.

at sun down

the fragile light

of a firefly

Not entirely the same tone and sense as the one by Basho, but it looks more like a haiku in the Spirit of Chevrefeuille :)

Basho revisited, sea of summer

While Basho was on his 'Narrow Road' he also visited Matsushima. According to many sources, old and new ones, Matsushima is the most beautiful and spectacular place in Japan. Since olden times, it has been depicted in poetry and pictures by many poets and artists. Even I, a simple and humble haiku poet from The Netherlands, have written about Matsushima without seeing it for real. I only know Matsushima from stories, poems and pictures. And I can say Matsushima cannot be hold in any poem, story of picture. It's a beautiful place and has an expanse of about 12 km of sea, where there are many islands in various shapes, as if designed and carved artistically by God Himself. Each island is covered with pine trees and its beauty is beyond description.
Matsushima must be really Paradise. Basho wrote the following haiku:

shi majima ya   chiji ni kudaki te   natsu no umi


many islands
broken into pieces
sea of summer

This leaves me in awe. What a picture, what a wonderful place to be. Maybe ... just maybe I will be allowed to see it with my own eyes.

Writing a haiku myself about Matsushima ... I think it isn't possible, but I have to try.

Matsushima
indescribable
tears in my eyes


Matsushima
beyond description
tears in my eyes

Matsushima

tears in my eyes
I cannot find the words to describe
Matsushima


covered with pine
the place of my dreams
Matsushima


crafted by God
this wonderful piece of Japan
Matsushima

Well ... I thought I couldn't find the words to describe Matsushima, but I did it ...and still Matsushima leaves me in awe.

Also published for:

Basho Revisited, how sleeves are wetted

According to Jane Reichhold's Old Pond: Basho's (almost) thousand haiku, Basho wrote the following haiku on Mount Yudano (bathroom). On this mountain was a spectacular waterfall which had been a Shinto place of worship since early times. Only men could visit it and only after a rigorous climb with several rituals and services in various temples. At the gate, after purification rites, they must remove their shoes to climb the rocks barefoot. In addition, before being allowed to view this wonder, each men had to swear never to reveal what he witnessed there. In modern times, in interests of disclosure, the secret of Mount Yudano has been revealed.
Due to the wearing away of the rock and the reddish minerals in the thermal-warmed water, the waterfall looks exactly like the private parts of a woman complete with sounds and gushing water. The practice can be thought of as worshipping the reproductive aspect of the feminine earth.
The priest Ekaku had asked Basho to write some poems on his visit to the three holy mountains of Dewa. Basho couldn't do that because it was an awesome experience for him and so he couldn't find the words. Also it was forbidden to talk about what he had witnessed on the mountain.

katara re nu   yudano ni nurasu   tometo kana


forbidden to say
how sleeves are wetted
in the bathroom

It's a strange story, but it has also something ... spiritual. To write a haiku in the same tone and sense as Basho did ... looks like climbing a mountain barefoot, but I will try.

what has happened?
petals of red roses around
the morning glory

an other haiku inspired by the one of Basho:

secret admirer -
petals of red roses around
my morning glory


A little bit of humour :)

Sincerely,

Basho Revisited, such stillness

shizu kasa ya   iwa ni shimi iru   semi no koe


such stillness
piercing the rock
a cicada's voice

In my first anthology of my haiku, which was published in 1998 (on own account) I defined haiku as the poetry of silence and emptiness. I think that a lot of our fellow haijin (haiku poets) shall say the same of haiku.
Basho wrote haiku about stillness, emptiness and loneliness, as we already have seen in this series of essays. The above verse is, in my opinion, one of his best haiku with stillness as theme. The stillness of the mountains becomes very strong by the fragile voice of the cicada.
This verse is not based on reality, because a cicada's voice can't pierce a rock, but it works with what is felt (also a sense) and not with what is thought. By the way Basho wrote this haiku at the so called 'mountain temple' in Yamagata. Yamagata was one of the places which Basho eagerly would visit on his 'Narrow Road'


Ah! that sound
the song of a Nightingale
deepens the silence


Isn't it a nice one? I love the Nightingale's song and love to write haiku about it. I have written several haiku with the Nightingale in it. For example the following one:

an old temple
shelter for the night -
a Nightingale sings



It's a haiku I have written in 'My Narrow Road'.


Sincerely,

Basho Revisited, this door of grass

As I mentioned in the previous episode of Basho Revisited I will use haiku from Basho's 'Narrow Road to the Far North'. In this episode I will tell something about the first verse which he has recorded for the haibun 'Narrow Road'.

Basho had a lot of friends and disciples at the time that he went on his journey to the far north. They all had come to visit him and to say goodbye. many of them had presents and gifts for Basho. Things he could use on his journey.
They accompanied him on the first two or three miles, say the first 10 km. When he went off he wrote:



kusa no to mo   sumi kawara yo zo   hina no ie


this door of grass
the resident changes for a time
a house of dolls

When Basho left his Banana tree cottage, he turned it over to Heiemon, who was married with a family. Thus, already, in Basho's bachelor quarters was the red ramp put up for the festival of the dolls for the girls of the family.
Basho and his good friend and student Sora left in this journey on May 16th. This verse fits with Basho's first sentence of the book: 'The months and days are the passing guests of a hundred generations, and the years that come and go are travelers, also'. (Source: Jane Reichhold's Old Pond: Basho's (almost) thousand haiku).

I wrote, as I stated in the previous episode, my own version of 'The Journey to the Far North'. The first verse I wrote for 'My Narrow Road' (after the preface) was:

the last night
I couldn't sleep -
a Nightingale sings

followed by a verse with farewell words:

a farewell verse
scribbled on a receipt
don't forget me

I wonder ... it's for sure a haiku in the Spirit of Chevrefeuille :), but is it the same as Basho's?

Until next time.

Basho Revisited, sweet iris

Preface:

Matsuo Basho made several journeys in his lifetime. One his most well known journeys is recorded in his 'Oku No Hosomichi' The narrow Road to the Far North. It's a wonderful piece of classical Japanese literature. In this haibun he descibes his longest journey. This journey covered about 2400 km and was done on straw sandals and with a bad health. Basho had a chronic illness. In this haibun, prose accompanied by haiku, he has given us a great amount of haiku.
In this episode and the following, say ten episodes, episodes of Basho Revisited I will choose haiku from this haibun. I hope you will enjoy these episodes.

I once have written a haibun titled 'My Narrow Road' inspired on the haibun by Basho. That haibun I have written in Dutch, so I will try to translate it and publish it here and on my other weblog, but that will take some time, because translating my haibun to English isn't that easy.

Back to this episode of Basho Revisited.

ayame gusa   ashi ni musuba n   waraji no wo


sweet Iris
I have tied them to my feet
as sandal cords

Basho was given new straw sandals by a friend. The cords were as blue as the flowers of the Iris.

As earlier said in these series I will try to write in every episode a new haiku in the Spirit of Basho. So also in this one I will try that.

red as roses
given to a beloved one
a new sweater

Is this ... a haiku in the Spirit of Basho? I think so, but it is not to me to decide that.

blue iris

Sincerely,