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