Tag: Spring

Spring

Spring has Sprung

Matsuo Munefusa, as he was then known, wrote this haiku when he was only nineteen.

“It is only the twenty ninth (of January), yet Spring has sprung (Risshun, 立春).“

春や来し年や行きけん小晦日

haru ya koshi | oh spring, has sprung
toshi ya yukiken | year after year is gone,
kotsugomori | it’s New Year’s Eve

Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa, Matsuo Basho, Spring, 1663

If it was still January, then Spring was early for the budding poet. For the Lunar New Year took place on February the 8th.

This haiku, like many others that I have translated, comes back again and again, year after year, like Spring, then gone.

This is the first known haiku by the poet who would one day become Matsuo Basho. It was written in the Spring of 1663. The young poet was then a servant to his samurai master, Tōdō Yoshitada.

One has to ask …

The Japanese, like the Chinese (and not unlike the ancient Egyptians), used a lunar calendar to calculate when to plant, harvest, and celebrate the cycles of the year. Already, the young poet who would become Matsuo Basho was

Spring, by Oriental reckoning, begins in February when it is still very cold, but the first signs of Spring can be seen in a few blades of green grass that sprout, the swelling buds on trees, and a warm breeze.

haru ya koshi | oh spring, has sprung

Amid clouds of blossoms we walk – Matsuo Basho

Amid the clouds of blossoms
Is the bell’s chime Ueno
Or Asakusa?

花の雲 鐘は上野か 浅草か

Hana no kumo/ Kane ha Ueno ka Asakusa ka

peach-blossom

Trailing clouds of blossoms we walk

In Japan, it is spring and the cherry trees are in full bloom.

We cannot know, but perhaps Matsuo Basho and his students are in Kiyosumi Gardens, in the Fukagawa District where Basho lived.  A disciple begins the discussion by saying, “Is it not heavenly, Master Basho, to walk in the midst of so many cherry blossoms?”

Then a single blossom falls. To which Basho replies, “In the even the smallest flower that falls, I fear, lies a truth too deep for tears.”

At that moment the sound of the bell is heard.

Fukagawa, Ueno, Asakusa

Fukagawa, where Basho lives, is on the other side of the Sumida River from Ueno and Asakusa. These well known areas include Buddhist and Shinto temples, as well as shopping and residential areas. In Asakusa is the famous Buddhist Sensō-ji temple. In Ueno is the Shinto shrine Ueno Tōshō-gū. Ueno is known as a working class district, while Asakusa is home to the more prosperous citizens of ancient Edo.

Notes on translation

花 hana flower, blossom

雲 kumo cloud

鐘 kane bell, chime

上野 ueno, temples include the Shinto shrine Ueno Tōshō-gū; a working class area

浅草 Asakusa, an area along the Sumida River including the ancient Sensō-ji temple; it is an upscale area, a place for the rich and prosperous

清澄庭園 Kiyosumi Garden, today’s strolling garden was developed after Basho’s time on earth, but an earlier garden no doubt existed. The garden contains a stone monument to Basho and his most famous haiku, an ancient pond, frog and the sound of water.

senso-ji temple
senso-ji temple