Naito Joso

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Naito Joso (Naitoo Joosoo, Naitō Jōsō)
内藤丈草


Naitō Jōsō (1662 - 1704) was one of the prinicipal disciples of Bashō, and himself also a respected haiku writer in the Genroku period of Japan. Originally, he was a samurai from Owari, but he had to leave military service due to ill health. Taking up the literary life, he became a devout disciple of Bashō, and when the Master died in 1694, Naito mourned him for a full three years, and remained his devout follower for the rest of his life.


Mountains and plains/ all are taken by the snow --/ nothing remains

No need to cling/ to things --/ floating frog.

These branches/ were the first to bud --/ falling blossoms.

A lightning bolt/ splits in two and strikes/ the mountaintop.

The sleet falls
As if coming through the bottom
Of loneliness.

More in the WIKIPEDIA

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寛文2年(1662) ～ 元禄17年 (1704.2.24)



Read more of his Japanese haiku HERE
　© PHOTO www.ese.yamanashi

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Compiled by Larry Bole, Translating Haiku

I recently came across this haiku by Naitoo Joosoo (1662-1704), a disciple of Bashoo's:

淋しさの底ぬけて降るみぞれかな
淋しさの底拔けて降る霙哉
sabishisa no soko nukete furu mizore kana

Blyth translates this as:

Sleet falling:
Fathomless, infinite
Loneliness.


About this haiku, Blyth begins his comment by saying:

'Soko nukete', literally, "the bottom falling out," is a Zen expression (applied to sudden enlightenment) very much more concrete and less sentimental than 'fathomless, infinite." [end of exerpt]

Wow! Blyth criticizes his own translation, and rightly so. I wonder why he didn't just do what Yuzuru Miura did in translating this haiku:

The sleet falls
As if coming through the bottom
Of loneliness.

Miura doesn't explain the Zen expression as Blyth did, but without knowing the connotations of "the bottom / of loneliness," or even what "the bottom / Of loneliness" is exactly, isn't it a more interesting translation than "Fathomless, infinite / Loneliness?"

I think Blyth got sidetracked in his translation by attempting to depict the state of enlightment that 'soko nukete' suggests, rather than sticking more closely to a literal rendering.

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The bottom of loneliness
falls off:
Oh, the falling sleet!

©　muse.jhu.edu


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falling through
the bottom of loneliness –
sleet

Tr. Michael Haldane



Dökülüverir
yalnızlığın dibinden –
Sulusepken kar

Çeviri: Turgay Uçeren


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Joso (Joosoo) lived as a Zen monk in a remote small hut (see below) and might have felt this endlessly falling sleet as falling right thoughthe bottom of heaven on his reed roof and onto his cold body. He felt the powerlessness, weakness and loneliness of his own body and personal situation even stronger. "through the bottom" is an expression of his humor on this bleek cold day, since there is nothing he can do but yield to his miserable situation and write poetry about it.
He died at the age of 43.


this sleet !
right through the bottom
of loneliness

OR

this sleet !
falling right through the bottom
of loneliness
Tr. Gabi Greve



More translations of this haiku
Translating Haiku Forum


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"空からみぞれがいつまでもいつまでも降り続いている。 その空の底が抜けたようなみぞれの降る様に、普段でも人気のない暮らしが一段も二段も沈むように感じられ、寂しさがどこまでも募っていく。"
という句であろう。

「底ぬけて」とは丈草のユーモアだが、修辞を超えた作者の深い悲しさを思わせる句である。俳句から浮かぶ丈草はゆったりとして物事に恬淡とした人物である。決して暗い陰を思わせる人物ではなかったと思う。
しかし、芭蕉の門人たちでこの句のような慟哭を思わせる寂しさ、悲しさを詠んだ俳人はいない。むろん、芭蕉にもこのような句はない。

底」という言葉になにか大事なものが込められている。想像だけで書けば、丈草の気持の底にはどうしようもない無力感があった気がする。「ねばりなき空にはしるや秋の雲」という句にみられる作為の否定も、老荘思想というより自分の底にある無力感をそのまま認め、そこから人生を組み立てようとする試みではなかったか。
その無力感とは病弱な身体のことだったかもしれないし、あるいは 武家を辞め出家した過去だったかもしれない。「淋しさの底ぬけてふるみぞれかな」の「底ぬけて」にはその無力感の中にそのまま身を投じるかのような響きがある。

Shomon meikakusen

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我事と鯲のにげし根芹哉　
waga koto to dojoo no nigeshi nezeri kana

The parsley roots --
Where the loach swam away,
Thinking someone's after him.


. Loach (dojoo 泥鰌) and kigo 　


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木啄や枯木をさがす花の中
kitsutsuki no kareki sagasu ya hana no naka

a woodpecker
searching for dead wood
in the blossoms
Tr. Robin D. Gill


More translated versions
. WKD : woodpecker, kitsutsuki 啄木鳥 .


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His Grave at "Dragon Hill" (Tatsu ga Oka 竜が丘)
Otsu Town

Naito spend his last years here in a small hut (Butsugen an 仏幻庵) in the mountain forest belonging to the temple Gichu-Ji (Gichuu ji 義仲寺 ).
Altoghether 17 haiku poets were later burried here in this little graveyard.


　© PHOTO : city.otsu.shiga.jp


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Related words

***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets　

***** 10 important disciples of Basho


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