An old pond, A frog jumps Makes the sound of the water
An old pond, A frog jumps Water speaks!
Furu ike ya kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto
古池 蛙飛び込む 水の音
Must I explain?
A message so simple, even a child can understand. The frog jumps, the water speaks. Be the frog, be the water, one acts, the other reacts. It is a Zen thing, if you have to explain, you don’t get it. Like a solitary cloud on a summer’s day. Like a blade of grass waving in the wind. Like a buttercup in a sea of green. It is something special that a child understands and an adult forgets.
The Karasaki pine tree is mistier than the cherry blossoms
Karasaki no matsu/ wa hana yori/ oboro nite
辛崎の松 は花より朧にて
Karasaki Pine Tree
“The Karasaki Pine Tree (Karasaki no matsu) stands on a walled esplanade in Karasaki village, 5 MN of Otsu near the steamer landing. Its 300 or more immense horizontal boughs, upheld by wood crutches or stone pillars, curve awkwardly, and at the top – 25 ft or more from the ground – tin and wood copings have been placed as a protection against the weather. These arms, some of which measure 200 odd ft. from point to point, reach out like those of a gigantic and repulsive spider, and are almost bare of foliage.”
– Terry’s Japanese Empire, T. Philip Terry, 1914
In the eighth moon of 1684, Matsuo Basho left Edo to visit his birthplace in Ueno. The occasion was the death of his mother in 1683. As journeys go, this one involved many stops and visits along the way. Previously, we left Basho on the path from Kyoto to Otsu, on Lake Biwa. On the mountain path, Basho discovered a violet growing in the grass, and took the occasion to write a haiku.
Now he was nearing Lake Biwa.
Lake Biwa, Pine tree of Karasaki
Descending from his mountain path to the lake, he views Otsu and its well-known pine tree in the distant mist. The ancient horizontal limbs are supported by pillars. Otsu also offers many sublime cherry blossom trees for viewing. For practical reasons, Basho found the pine tree more to his liking. Or maybe he just found it a bit hazier or mistier, oboro朧, if he arrived in the early foggy April morning.
Meaning of the poem
The meaning of the haiku is itself obscure on its face.
Likely, Basho is making a reference to the poem by Prince Konoe Masaie (1444-1505).
In the night rain its green fades Serene in the evening breeze Stands the pine tree Of Karasaki. — Prince Konoe Masaie (1444-1505)
That however does not explain the mention of the cherry blossoms.
There is a well-known idiom, hana yori dango, which translates as preferring dumplings over flowers. This also means to prefer the practical over the beautiful. A secondary meaning is that viewers of the cherry blossoms prefer the wine and food over the blossoms themselves. A pine tree, it seems to me is more practical than a cherry blossom. It provides protection from the elements and material for building.
Like California’s Sequoia’s the Karasaki pine tree is ancient. Even in Basho’s day, it was believed to be one thousand years old. A new pine tree has since been planted from a cutting of the old Karasaki pine tree.
the hawk’s eyes now, dim that it is dark, so the quail sings
鷹の目も今 や暮れぬと 鳴く鶉
taka no me mo / ima ya kurenu to / naku uzura
1691
Early in 1691 Matsuo Bashō stayed for a time in Saga (southern Japan, near Nagasaki), with his disciple Mukai Kyorai, who like Bashō had been born into a Samurai family. In late fall or early winter, he returned to Edo to stay in his third banana hut. The anthology, Monkey’s Raincoat (Sarumino猿蓑) is published.
Another Hawk haiku
In 1678, on a visit to the Atsumi peninsula and Cape of Irago (Iragosaki), Basho wrote this haiku:
By a stroke of luck, I saw A solitary hawk circling Above Iragosaki (Cape Irago)
鷹一つ見付てうれしいらご崎
taka hitotsu mitsukete ureshi Iragosaki
Notes on translation of a Quail Sings
Line one. Taka no me mo, literally the “Hawk eyes now”.
Hawks have excellent eyesight. They can see 8 times better than we be-speckled humans. But like humans, the hawk’s vision dims in the night. And the quail hiding in the tall grass during the day, waits until it is dark, to sing.
Line two. Ima ya kurenu to. Ima, now, Kurenu, that it gets dark, also meaning to come to an end. The hawk’s hunting must end for the quail to sing.
Line three. Naku uzura. The quail (uzura), it sings, it cries, its voice resounds now that the hawk is in its nest. Naku also means to sob, which is what the hawk must me doing.
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