The opening verse of the anthology Sarumino 猿蓑, Monkey’s Raincoat (1691).
初しぐれ猿も小蓑をほしげ也 hatsu shigure saru mo komino o hoshige nari
the first winter rain — the monkeys shiver and shake, wanting straw raincoats. — Matsuo Basho, Sarumino 猿蓑, Winter (November?) 1691
Late November
Here I sit, late in November, looking out the window at the falling leaves blowing in the cold wind. I am preparing for Thanksgiving knowing the weather will turn cold. How cold, the monkeys will know as they shake and shiver in the first freezing rain of the season …
Late in November. How late? Matsuo Basho died on November 28, 1694.
初しぐれ hatsu shigure means the first cold shower, the first winter rain of the season, most likely November.
“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.
Ten days before Christmas, the shopping is done, the house is festive, thanks to the wife. Bashō no yōna, the 21st century disciple of Matsuo Basho (aren’t we all?), has one job. Let the dog out in the morning. So, he gets up, makes the coffee, and finds the dog at the back door, looking puzzled.
It is raining outside.
It’s raining outside, The dog’s at the door, she pauses, To go or stay, we wonder!
Bashō no yōna, December 2023
No one likes the rain in December.
初しぐれ猿も小蓑をほしげ也 hatsu shigure saru mo komino o hoshige nari
first winter shower (first freezing drizzle) a monkey, it seems, wants something to wear, like us.
Matsuo Basho, Monkey’s Raincoat, Winter 1689
hatsu (first) shigure (cold autumn/winter rain) saru (monkey) mo (too, also) komino (something to wear) o hoshige (wanting something, i.e. to wear, a raincoat) nari (also)
Monkey’s Raincoat
Baby it is cold out there.
When Basho and his friends showed up for a renga party, sometime towards the end of the year, they did so in the freezing rain wearing overcoats to protect the from the steady drizzle, (shigure).
Shigure, is that steady downfall that comes in late fall and early winter, the kind that soaks one to the bone.
Sarumino, or the Monkey’s Raincoat, is the fifth of the seven poetry anthologies compiled by Basho and his disciples. It was written in Ueno (his hometown), Kyoto and Omi, along Lake Biwa. Composed as a form of renga by Basho and his disciples and was published in 1691, three years before Basho’s death. Edited by Kyorai and Boncho.
初しぐれ猿も小蓑をほしげ也 hatsu shigure saru mo komino o hoshige nari
Source Notes.
Gabi Greve’s excellent website on all things Basho has multiple translations of the Japanese text.
From “Journal of Bleached Bones in a Field” – Matsuo Basho left Edo with man named Chiri as a companion and aide, on a trip in the eighth month of 1684. He had barely begun his journey, when, crossing the Fuji River, he heard the wail of a small child.
“I was walking along the Fuji River when I saw an abandoned child (捨子, sutego, foundling), barely two, pitifully weeping. Had his parents been unable to endure this floating world, wave-tossed as these rapids, and so left him here to wait out a life, brief as the dew? He seemed like a bush clover in autumn’s wind (秋の風, aki no kase, autumn wind)that might scatter in the evening or wither in the morning.
I tossed him some food from my sleeve and said in passing:
Hearing the monkey’s howl, Or an abandoned child’s crying in the autumn wind
– Which is worse?
You, who listens to the monkey’s cry, What of the abandoned child Weeping in the Autumn Wind?
Basho consoles himself we these words:
Why did this happen? Were you hated by your father, neglected by your mother? Your father did not hate you, your mother did not neglect you. This simply is from heaven, and you can only grieve over your fate.
Not a flattering picture.
To me, Basho comes across as uncaring, but what is a poet to do? Especially one who follows the tenets of Buddhism. But then, did not Buddha say, “However many holy words you read or speak, what good do they do if you do not act on upon them?” (A paraphrase of verses 19 and 20 from the Dhammapada.)
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