From a renga collection called Edo Sangin 江戸三吟. Fugu, blowfish soup, daring but delicious.
あら何ともなや昨日は過ぎて河豚汁 ara nan tomo na ya kinō wa sugite fukuto-jiru well, nothing’s happened yesterday is gone — blowfish soup
Matsuo Bashō, Edo Sangin, Spring 1678
Spring 1678
Six years in Edo, still a penniless poet, working odd jobs, teaching haiku, relying on the largess of patrons. Taking in Noh plays in Edo’s fashionable Nihonbashi District, sitting in cafes, reciting rhymes in renga fashion.
Thirty four years old. How is he feeling?
Numb, as if he had just eaten fugu. Daring but delicious.
Or maybe he was just celebrating the fact that he had eaten blowfish soup the day before and nothing happened.
Basho haiku have been published in various anthologies, and he too has published his own anthologies. But Basho has not yet found his name for he still goes by the pen name Tosei, an unripe peach.
The French like their soup.
bien, rien ne se passé hier est parti — soupe de poisson-globe
.
Oh, mon Dieu, hier est passé, manger de la soupe de poisson-globe
Matsuo Basho, French
Fuga
If you prefer:
Thank God, Yesterday is gone, Eating Fugu soup
Tosei
Fugu. Blowfish are often grouped lowfish, pufferfish, porcupine-fish and trigger-fish. These delicacies are known for producing a neurotoxin that can numb, and even kill. I assume, but don’t know if the Japanese Lionfish is included in this group.
Japanese Proverbs:
Wanting to eat fugu, But wishing to live Another day.
.
Those who eat fugu soup are stupid, Just like those who don’t
氷苦く偃鼠が咽をうるほせり kōri nigaku . enso ga nodo o . uruoseri Ice is bitter, in a rat’s mouth, but it quenches his thirst. Ice that’s bitter, in a rat’s mouth, just enough to shut him up
Matsuo Basho, Winter 1683
Shut up, uru sei
Most translators are happy to let the rat quench his throat with the bitter taste of ice. A second interpretation is that it makes him ‘shut up’. Uru sei (うるせい) and Uru oseri (うるほせり) being the slight distinction. Of course, For Basho, it is winter, bitterly cold and he is trying to get some sleep. A noisy rat needs to shut up.
Winter of 1683
The year 1683 was bitter for Matsuo Basho, whose mother died earlier that year. His beloved Basho-an, his hut in Fukagawa, had burned down the previous winter, but friends had found him a new one. One no doubt he was getting used to, accompanied by the river rats. (Basho lived near the Sumida River.)
No doubt, also on his mind was that, in the Japanese zodiac, the year to come, February 15, 1684, to be exact was the year of the Rat.
2024
The year 2024 is the year of the Dragon, almost half way in to 12 year cycle that makes up the Chinese and Japanese zodiac. The Rat begins again the cycle.
Gentle Reader, in case you are curious, today, for those born under the Rat sign things look fabulous — despite the bitterly cold weather sweeping the land.
Please, will someone let the weatherman know.
Notes on Translation
kōri (water) nigaku (bitter) enso (rat, mouse) ga nodo (rat’s mouth) o uruoseri (quench, satisfy). Uru sai literally means noisy or annoying, but is often used to get someone to shut up. Being a non-native student of Japanese, I come up with ‘get satisfied’ for uro oseri うるほせり.
Random thoughts on snow and love, on drinking and driving, on crazy verse.
It’s Snowing! Falling off a buckskin horse (Please, don’t) drink and ride
雪や砂馬より落ちよ酒の酔 yuki ya suna uma yori ochiyo sake no yoi
Matsuo Basho, Oi no Kobumi, Winter 1687-8
yuki (snow) ya (exclamation, emphasis) suna (sand colored, chestnut) uma (horse) yori (than) ochiyo (falling down) sake no yoi (drunk on sake). Suna is sand colored, buckskin is a tan colored horse with a dark mane. One wonders, does it matter?
One wonders if thoughts are truly random. Even snowflakes falling take on a pattern. And thoughts of this and that lead on to other thoughts. Bashō no yōna was thinking of love, of snow, of snow falling down, and how he liked the twinkling Christmas lights all covered in white.
Matsuo Basho wrote about snow. He did not write about love. Why not, does it matter?
Matsuo Basho had many disciples, many friends. Ochi Etsujin 越智越人 was one. Etsujin lived in Nagoya, which was on the way to Ueno in Mie province, Basho’s birthplace. It is said, Etsujin was a handsome lad, and not much else. Perhaps he lived from 1655-1739, but no one knows for certain.
But does it matter?
In the winter of 1687-8, Matsuo journeyed from Edo to Nagoya, to Ueno, to Iga and the Grand Ise shrine, to Nara to Otsu. His friend Etsujin went with him. Basho had Kyoku on his mind and Saiygo. Kyoku (crazy verse) being a kind of humorous or ironic haiku without its strict conventions. Saiygo being a serious minded monk who often traveled and lived alone.
Picture this. It is early morning. The snow is gently falling. Each is riding a horse. Etsujin is on a Chestnut, a horse of sandy color. Etsujin is drunk on the sake they drank the night before and the lack of sleep, falling down.
It’s snowing, Etsujin, better to just ride the horse, Than fall down drunk
雪や . 砂 . 馬より落ちよ酒の酔
Etsujin wrote a haiku about cats in love or is it cats in heat, which has nothing to do with snow.
うらやまし . 思ひ切る時 . 猫の恋 Urayamashi (I am jealous of you) omoi-kiru (making up my mind) toki (time) neko no koi (the cat’s in heat) I am so jealous of you, I’ve made up my mind, it must be time, the cat’s in heat.
Urayamashi could also mean “I wish I were like you.”
I wish I were like you, But then there wouldn’t be two of us, Just one
Now that’s kyoku-crazy.
If there is a lesson in all this, it is this: Be curious and try to laugh.
P.S. This post was written several days ago, but does it matter?
“Monkey see, monkey do” is an old saying meaning doing something without understanding what one is doing.
AI and Monkeys
I tested Chatgpt to come up with a New Year haiku and got this:
Midnight whispers cease, Hope unfurls in quiet dawn, New year’s breath begins.
Chatgpt, New Year haiku, 2023
Next year, I will try it again, and again…
年々や – 猿に着せたる – 猿の面 Toshi doshi ya – saru ni kisetaru – saru no men
Year after year, dressed like a monkey wearing a monkey mask
Matsuo Basho, New Year, 1693
Penultimate
Matsuo Basho gave us this one in the next to very last year of his life. Penultimate, is a fancy word for it. Meaning, next to last. (Basho died in November of 1694.) Basho was, one presumes, visiting the Sarutahiko Shrine in Ise, Mie, near his hometown. A bitter farewell to the old year, a farewell to home and youth. Before the New Year one buys a monkey mask to ward off evil spirits.
I sense some irony in humans aping monkeys and not the other way around.
Monkeys Typing
Speaking of monkeys and AI, there is the infinite monkey theorem that states that a monkey randomly clicking keys on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will produce all the great literature of the world, and what remains to written.
Which is scary, if one has the time to read it.
Coincidentally, the ending year, 1692, had been the year of the monkey. The next year of the monkey won’t begin until February of 2028.
And yes, I know, the Japanese New Year correctly begins in February.
Monkey Sanbaso Dancing, Mori Sosen 森 狙仙, the first day of the Monkey year, 1800, source, USC Pacific Asia Museum
Mori Sosen, a Japanese painter of the Shijō school during the Edo period, was famous for painting monkeys over and over again.
Last year, first news Genroku, 7th year,1694 New Year’s Feast at Edo
The news is not good in Edo. It is cold. His sick nephew Toin, who he had taken in, had died of tuberculosis, and Basho is alone in his cottage. Basho himself is dealing with recurring stomach problems. At a New Year’s gathering, Basho wants to hear of the news at the Grand Shrine at Ise.
In the summer of 1694, Basho would leave his cottage for the last time. He would die in November.
At a New Year’s Feast I want to hear The first news at Ise
蓬莱に聞かばや伊勢の初便り hōrai ni kika baya Ise no hatsu dayori
Matsuo Basho, Edo, New Year 1694
Grand Shrine of Ise
Matsuo Basho visited the Grand Shrine at Ise many times. This is not surprising since the Buddhist shrine is in Mie province, near to Iga-Ueno where Basho was born. On the New Year the shrine is particularly popular with visitors and the news would be buzzing about.
hōrai (a New Year’s feast) ni (a participle to indicate location); kika hear, ask, listen; baya (want) Ise (Grand Shrine of Ise) no (participle connecting Ise with the New Year tidings) hatsu dayori (hatsu, first time, and dayori, news of tidings, New Year’s news or tidings)
Horai. A paradise based upon the Chinese Penglai. In Horai there is no death, no pain, and there is no winter. Horai also refers to the New Year’s banquet.
matsuo-basho-haiku 