the summer grass is all that remains of a soldiers’s dream
the summer grass the splendid dreams of Samurai warriors
夏草や 兵どもが 夢の跡
Natsukusa ya/ Tsuwamono domo ga/ Yume no ato
Matsuo Basho, Oku no Hosomichi, 1689
Note. Basho uses Tsuwamono (兵), an old term for a soldier and not Bushi, 武士, samurai warrior.
Ukraine, February 2022
As I write this, Russian military forces are invading the Ukraine. Vladimir Putin who ordered the invasion has bemoaned the collapse of the Soviet Union as the demise of “historical” Russia and dreams of returning the Ukraine to Russian rule.
Kobayashi Issa, 小林一茶, (1763 -1828) followed in the footsteps of Matsuo Basho.
雀の子 そこのけそこのけ お馬が通る Suzume noko/ Sokonoke sokonoke/ Ouma ga tooru
Baby sparrow, Step aside, My horse is passing by
The Spring of My Life, Kobayashi Issa, 1819
Version two
Sparrow’s child Retreat, retreat Here comes a horse
The Spring of My Life, Kobayashi Issa, 1819
Issa’s Meaning
Step aside.
The internal rhyme alliteration and repetition, Suzume noko, Sokonoke sokonoke, “child, retreat, retreat,” appeal to child and adult alike. That retreat sounds like “tweet” is a bonus for English readers. Issa’s tender haiku advises one to care for the very, very weak.
But, it also serves as a warning — when the big one speaks, little ones should scatter and not be seen. A horse, of course, the all-powerful Shogun.
It snowed last night, several inches, which is unusual in southern Kansas. Snow, snow, snow, let it snow, we used to say as kids, hoping that school would be cancelled, which is what happened today, February, o2, 2022.
Or 2/2/22, a palindrome date.
Looky, looky, looky Yuki, yuki, yuki We’re playing hooky
Bashō no yōna, February 2, 2022
Note. Hooky, skipping school without permission. Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn often played hooky.
yuki, snow
Basho on Snow and Winter
From the book Oi no kobumi, Winter 1687-8:
いざ行かむ 雪見にころぶ 所まで Iza yukan / yukimi ni korobu / tokoro made
Let’s go out And see the snow Until we slip and fall.
Matsuo Basho, Oi no kobumi, Winter 1687-8
A child grow up and the snow is not his friend. Still, snow on Mt. Fuji is a thing of beauty.
冬の日や馬上に氷る影法師 fuyu no hi ya / bashō ni kōru / kagebōshi
A winter’s day me and my shadow frozen on horseback
一尾根はしぐるる雲か 富士の雪 hito one wa / shigururu kumo ka / Fuji no yuki
over the ridge Winter showers is there’s snow on Mount Fuji?
Matsuo Basho, Oi no kobumi, early Winter 1687-8
Oi no kobumi
In English, Notes from my Knapsack, or BackpackNotes, 笈の小文, October 25, 1687 to June 1688. Matsuo Basho was 44 when he began this round-Robin trip, reciting verse, from Edo to Iga, then Nagoya, to the grand Ise shrine, and from Nara to Otsu, and home again. Like a child going to school he carried a knapsack, oi 笈, usually made of bamboo.
Snow on Mt. Fuji
There are many translations of Matsuo Basho’s haiku. Not surprisingly they do not all agree. Many a slip twixt the cup and the lip, said Robert Burns. In our case, between pen, the word, and the ear.
In the last haiku, being away form Edo, I suspect Matsuo was wondering if the snow had yet appeared at Mt. Fuji. In late fall, snow flurries make their first appearance at Mount Fuji. And, typically, Fuji is snow-capped five months out of the year. Traveling by horse over the hills in a winter storm, wondering is there snow on Mt. Fuji. This question arises because the character か, ka appears prior to snow on Mt. Fuji (shigururu kumo ka / Fuji no yuki).
matsuo-basho-haiku 