Reflecting

Reflecting,
Being and becoming Matsuo Basho,
Haiku

Bashō no yōna, November, 2023

Reflections on Matsuo Basho

Bashō no yōna, the author of this blog on the life and haiku of Matsuo Basho, finds himself reflecting. Reflecting on how a young Japanese boy, the son of a samurai, turned farmer, then became servant to his samurai lord, then student of poetry, disciple, then teacher, and finally master. It is, indeed, a process, becoming Matsuo Basho.

Haiku is a peculiarly Japanese art form that consists of three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third. Seventeen syllables in all, usually containing a seasonal word (kigo) that serve as a memory allusion. Similar and different from Proust’s Madeline and tea. The seasonal idea is both physical and temporal. We are in the spring, summer, fall or winter of our lives. We are also cold or warm. It may be a bright summer day, or a cold windy day in November, like it is here.

Most importantly, in a well formed haiku, one finds a cutting word, kiru, the juxtaposition of two ideas, that when combined, create a unique sensory experience.

This is demonstrated in Basho’s best known haiku, which combines a leaping frog and and old pond, creating the sound of water.

古池や　
蛙飛び込む　
水の音

Furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto

A leaping frog,
In an old pond,
Says, Kerplunk!

Bashō no yōna

[Note. Here, Basho follows the rules of haiku with the five, seven, five pattern. The seasonal word is the summer frog, and the cutting word ‘ya’ gives us an exclamation which I, in my translation, moved to the end. There is also an anthropomorphic process at work, an act of creation, in that Basho makes the water speak, mizu no oto, the sound of water.]

Why Haiku?

Mostly because it is fun. A child can enjoy it, and an adult can once again become a child.

The fun in reading Basho’s haiku is that it causes us to look at our surroundings in a different way. The fun in translating his haiku is that one observes that no two translators look at Basho’s creations in the same exact manner. This shouldn’t surprise us. Basho’s haiku is undoubtedly his work, but it is our unique experience.

Reading and writing,
Transforming, creating, ah!
— the fun of haiku

Bashō no yōna, on the Great Plains of America, Fall, 2023

Enjoy!