hackberries falling,
Matsuo Basho, date unknown
fluttering wings of grey starlings,
a brisk morning wind
榎の実散る椋の羽音や朝嵐
e no mi chiru
muku no haoto ya
asa arashi
While hackberries don’t make much of a splash, starlings can create a stunning spectacle, first with their loud morning chattering and then when they all rise at once.
Notes on Translation
e, enoki 榎, the (Asian) hackberry tree; chiru 散る, fall, scatter
muku 椋, grey starling; haoto 羽音, the sound of wings, fluttering wings
asa arashi 朝嵐, literally morning storm, referring in this case to a windstorm
Yummy
The hackberry tree is a native Kansas species, a tough cookie that can survive prairie fires, It has small tough berries that are a source of food for birds. Several websites including earththplanet.org say “All “hackberry berries are edible and highly nutritious.” The taste, to me, is bland, and better left for the birds. Pioneers in Kansas ate them in a pinch. And hackberries were found in the tomb of Peking Man, dated to be 500,000 years old!
This haiku is like a hackberry, without much meat, unless I am missing something.
matsuo-basho-haiku 
I prefer this translation, perhaps it offers a little more to get our teeth into?
sounds of hackberries falling
starlings taking wing
a morning windstorm
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Thank you for posting this haiku and your commentary. However, the enoki 榎, Japanese Hackberry (Celtis sinensis), is an oriental species which used to form natural woodlands in Japan. It is naturalised rather than native in the US. The fruits are much enjoyed by birds. It is mentioned in the Man’yōshū, the oldest and largest Japanese poetry anthology (collected together soon after 759 CE), which contains more than 4,500 poems in 20 volumes.
In Book 16 of the Man’yōshū, Poem 16.3872 (evidently a love poem voiced by a woman) has been translated as “Although myriad birds come that strip off and eat fruits of a hackberry at my gate, my lord does not come!”. Reference: Vovin, Alexander (2021): Man’yōshū: a new English translation containing the original text, kana transliteration, romanization, glossing and commentary. Book 16. Page 154.
We can safely assume that Basho would have been aware of this anthology which has held a special position in Japanese culture. Even in the 20th Century botanical gardens were created to show all of the plants mentioned in the Man’yōshū
In the 1840s Hiroshige used a haiku with the same final line “morning storm” on different prints showing pairs of mandarin ducks and also a picture of a fisherman and his wife being separated as his boat sails. It had come to represent the separation of lovers after a night together. Perhaps the later use of this line was a deliberate homage to Basho?
Perhaps also in Basho’s poem the last line is ambiguous, representing the storm of a flock of starlings stripping his tree of its fruits as much as any meteorological storm? Maybe there is more meat to this haiku than initially meets the eye!
I look forward to reading your next Basho poem.
With kind regards,
Mark Ritchie
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I have tasted Hackberries, very small and not too tasty, but birds love them.
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