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| Scarecrow |
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| Riva del Garda (TN) at Dawn |
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| Tanishi (or mud-snail) |
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| Credits: The "Wedded Rocks" at Futamigaura |
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| Sarca River |
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| Credits: Solitude Tree |
Chèvrefeuille writes:
"our first prompt of our new month of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, November. The first seven (regular) prompts will be the seven sacred autumn flowers and today the first of those sacred autumn flowers is Bush Clover (Hagi)."I found it interesting that the word Bush Clover in Japanese is Hagi ... in Italian that's the way Haji has been transliterated - in the Muslim faith a Haji (Italian - Hagi) is a person who has gone to Mecca for Sacred Pilgrimage ... which of course has nothing to do with Bush Clover but it struck me anyway as interesting anyway :-) .
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Tree Sparrows and Bush Clover (Hagi ni suzume) : Utagawa Hiroshige Japanese, 1797-1858 - RISD Museum
tree sparrows
among the bush clover flowers chirrup happily
shimmering fog
bush clover flowers swaying - in the northern wind
© G.s.k. '14
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Here are some haiku written by the haiku Master - Basho:
mire te yuku ya hito mo okashi ame no hagi
to get wet
by passing a man is interesting
bush clover in rain
© Basho
shiratsuyu wo kobusanu hagi no uneri kana
not spilling the glistening dew,
the bush clover,
undulating
© Basho
yuujo no onajiyane no moto de amarini moga nemutte iru hagi to tsuki
under the same roof
courtesans, too, are asleep --
bush clover and the moon
© Basho
Linked to Carpe Diem Haiku Kai
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And we have a second haiku to inspire us as well ... Yozakura, who also writes about Sado which was where exiles were sent.the rough sea
flowing toward Sado Isle
the River of Heaven© Basho (1644-1694)Sado was an isle for banishment.
an outcast I amday dreaming along the seashore;Sado Isle beckons© Yozakura
storm and windrough seas
rough seas beat my home shores
- church bells toll
There are several haiku written about Hot Springs and one of them I love to share here with you. It's a haiku written by Matsuo Basho, my master.
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.
meigetsu ya ike o megurite yo mo sugarathe night deepens
the autumn full moon:
all night long
I paced round the lake.
© Basho
I love to introduce an all new feature here at our Haiku Kai. It's a bit similar with the CD-Specials, but there is a little difference. In every episode (once a week on Thursday) I will introduce a 'masterpiece' of one of the classic haiku-poets (well-known and less-known) to inspire you to write a new haiku. Here is the difference with the CD-Specials. Those new haiku, inspired on the 'masterpiece', have to follow the classical rules of haiku:
1. 5-7-5 syllables
2. a kigo (or seasonword)
3. a kireji (or cutting word, in Western languages mostly interpunction)
4. a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water
5. a deeper meaning (could be Zen-Buddhistic or other spiritual or religious thought)
6. and the first and the third line are interchangeable.
This one became that famous, because until than, the frog was used only for its own croaking and not for its movement. As you can see this translation doesn't follow the classical count, but in the Japanese Onji it follows for sure that count. 'Frog" is a seasonword (kigo) for Summer; the "-" is the cutting word (can be translated into the Japanese "ya"); it's a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water; the deeper meaning is in the 'movement' of the frog and if you interchange the first and third line the haiku is almost the same:
sound of water (-)
a frog jumps in
the old pond (Matsuo Basho)
tabi ni yande yume wa kareno wo kake-meguruThis is Basho's death poem a jisei. This was a Japanese tradition among literate people, especially Samurai and Zen Buddhist monks, in the past, though it's not an exclusive characteristic of the Japanese, the Koreans and Chinese did the same and some have reached us from the past.
ill on a journey
my dreams start to wander
across dessicated fields
© Matsuo Basho (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)
"As he wrote/composed this haiku he was a young guy of nearly 20 yrs old. And in my opinion this haiku looks like the haiku of a beginner, but as we will look closer ... this haiku is a masterpiece, one of his first masterpieces. This haiku isn't well known, but I think you will like it."
haru ya koshi toshi ya yukiken kotsugomorihas spring come
or has the year gone?
second-to-last-day
© Matsuo Basho (Tr. David Landis Barnhill)
( With this haiku came a preface, as was very common in those times. That preface was: ''Today we have the first day of spring in spite of the date''.
I think you can imagine why Basho wrote this haiku, so I leave it ... no explanation ... just visualize the scene.)
Following the classic rules of Renga, Chèvrefeuille picks up the challenge and keeping in mind the vision of Basho writes:
ubazakura saku ya rogo no omoiidethe old-lady cherry
in bloom: a remembrance
of her old age© Matsuo Basho (Tr. David Landis Barnhill)
See how he delicately includes cherry blossoms to relate to the cherry in bloom! Great job!the old-lady cherryin bloom: a remembrance
of her old age (Basho)
a day to celebrate
the first cherry blossoms (Chèvrefeuille)
memories of cherry blooms
seen from her autumn window (G.s.k. '14)
While Basho was staying at the Yamanaka Hot Springs, the 16 year old son of the innkeeper, Izumiya Matabel, attracted Basho's attention. He gave the young man 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 kazea peach tree
its leaves aren't scattered
winds of autumn© Basho
As was common in those times this haiku had a preface:
''At the beginning of September I came back home. I was already long since my mother had died. The grass in front of mother's room had withered in the frost. Everything had changed. The hair of my brother and sisters (Basho had a brother, an elder sister and three younger sisters) was white and they had wrinkles between their eyebrows. We could only say, 'we are fortunate to be still alive'. Nothing more. My elder brother opened an amulet case and said reverently to me, 'Look, at mother's white hair. You have came back after such a long time. So this is like the Tamate Box of Urashima Taro. Your eyebrows have become white'. We wept for a while and then I composed this verse.
