The Year of the Dragon

New Year, 1685

From the Nozarashi kiko (1684-1685), the year after his mother died. From Edo, along the Tokaido Road, home to Iga, then to Nagoya, on the road to Nara, Basho chanted verse to himself, as we all like to do when we walk alone.

年暮れぬ . 笠きて草鞋 . はきながら
Toshi kurenu . kasa kite waraji . haki nagara
The year is fading,
wearing a hat and straw sandals,
while aspiring to keep it together

Matsuo Basho, Nozarashi kikō, New Year, 1685

toshi (year) kurenu (getting dark, fading) kasa (covering hat, often made of bamboo) kite waraji (straw sandals) haki (can mean drive or ambition) nagara (while, simultaneously)

Maybe Basho’s student is aspiring to find a little more meaning in an otherwise straight forward haiku. Most transalators do no better than to say,

“Another year is gone, and I still wear a bamboo hat and straw sandals.”

Americans have a saying “squeeze the lemon” which can mean getting the last ounce of goodness out of something. A pejorative twist is to get everything you can from another person, for good or bad. And then sometimes, when you squeeze a lemon all you get is lemon juice, meaning “that’s it.”

Bashō no yōna often thinks there is more to a haiku, and there isn’t.

The Lunar New Year this year comes February the 10th. It will be the year of the dragon, which I suppose is something. And if you are born this year then you are naturally lucky and gifted.

Squeeze the lemon
All you get
is lemon juice
.
easy peasy
lemon squeezy
that was easy
.
mi kasa
y su kasa
make two kasa

Bashō no yōna