Shiba Sonome

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Shiba Sonome 斯波園女
(1664-1726)
寛文4年（1664年） - 享保11年4月20日（1726年5月21日）




She was born in Ise, Yamada, as a daughter of a priest from Ise Shrine, and later well known for her beauty.

Her husband was the doctor Shiba Ichi-U 斯波一有, also a pupil of Matsuo Basho. His haiku name was Isen 渭川（いせん））. They lived in Osaka since 1692.

In 1690, Sonome became a student of Basho. Her correspondence with Basho is quite well loved.

After the death of her husband, she went to Edo and contacted Enomoto Kikaku. She also worked as a doctor to help people with ailments of the eyes.
In 1718 she cut her hair and became a nun, called Chikyo-Ni (Chikyoo ni )智鏡尼.

Her main publications

Kiku no Chiri 菊の塵 Dust on Chrysanthemums

Tsuru no Tsue 鶴の杖 Cane of a Crane
(containing poetry of her life at age 60)


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Some of her haiku

夜あらしや太閤様の桜狩（俳家奇人談）

みどり子を頭巾でだかん花の春（住吉物語）

大根に実の入る旅の寒さかな（小弓俳諧集）

春の野に心ある人の素貌哉（あら野）




衣更えわざと隣の子をだきに
koromogae waza to tonari no ko o daki ni

changing of the robes -
deliberately I go to the neighbour
to hold her child

koromogae - changing to sommer robes



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While Matsuo Basho visited her estate in 1694,
he wrote about her
元禄７年（１６９４年）９月２７日




白菊の目に立てゝ見る塵もなし
shiragiku no me ni tatete miru chiri mo nashi

gazing intently
at the white chrysanthemums --
not a speck of dust

Here Basho is complementing the host (Sonome), represented by the white chrysanthemums, by stressing the flower's and, by implication, Sonome's purity.
Haruo Shirane


Basho was inspired to write this by a waka of

. Saigyo Hoshi　西行法師 .


WKD : Symbols, allegory, metaphor and Haiku



暖簾の奥ものふかし北の梅
nooren no oku monofukashi kita no ume

beyond the curtain
a quiet depth -
northern plum blossoms
Tr. Shirane

Read the comment of Shirane :
source : books.google.co.jp


Written in 1688 貞亨5年春.


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yo ni hito no shiranu hana ari miyama shii

some blossoms there are
that nobody sees—
an oak deep in the woods




sakanu ma mo mono ni magirenu sumire kana

it stands out
even before blooming—
a wild violet



mushi no ne ya yo fukete shizumu ishi no naka

the insects’ chirp
as night deepens
sinks into the stones


Far Beyond the Field
translated by Makoto Ueda and Arnold P. Lutzker

External LINK to her work





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in my paper kerchief
a wild violet
has long since wilted
Tr. Makoto Ueda


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Her grave at park, close to Kiyosumi Teien 清澄庭園
at the temple Oshoin (Ooshoo In) 雄松院.

Basho-An is close to this temple.

The grave stone has the inscription
Watarai Sonome 度会（わたらい）園女


Reference : 斯波園女


Japanese women poets:
an anthology By Hiroaki Sato
Reference : google books

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***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets


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Inoue Shiro

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Inoue Shiroo 井上士朗 Inoue Shiro

1742 - 1812, May 16.

寛保二年(一七四二)- 文化九年五月十六日(一八一二)
寛保２（1742）～文化９年（1812）５月１６日
Medical doctor and Haiku Poet from Nagoya.
Shiroo 支朗

Shiro Memorial Day, Shiroo Ki 士朗忌 (しろうき)
May 16.
kigo for early summer

"Loquat plantation" Memorial Day
Biwaen Ki 枇杷園忌（びわえんき）
Shujusoo Ki 朱樹叟忌 (しゅじゅそうき)

Biwa-En was his haiku name.

His real name was Inoue Masaharu 井上正春
also known as Senan 通称専庵, later Shoo-Oo, "Old Man Pine"（のち松翁）。

He belonged to the three famous people of the Kansei Period (寛政の三大家).


「俳聖井上士朗宅址」

He lived in the neighbourhood of the temple Daikoo-Ji 大光寺, where even now there is a memorial stone in his honour.



山里の　月夜を運べ　庭の松
yamazato no tsukiyo o hakobe niwa no matsu


©　red.ap.teacup.com

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Owari Nagoya and Shiro
「尾張名古屋は士朗（しろ）でもつ」



From right to left we have

Yosa Buson 1716-1783
Inoue Shiro 1742-1812
Kumura Kyotai 1732-1872

Kyootai 久村暁台（くむらきょうたい) was the teacher of Inoue Shiro.

©　silver.ap.teacup.com

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Trichterwinden



Inoue Shirô (1742-1812)
38,9 x 59,6 cm , Sumi-Tusche auf Papier
Collectie: © Sammlung Jon de Jong
©　www.galeries.nl/

from the exhibition

Haiku & Haiga - Augenblicke in Wort und Bild
Museum Schloss Moyland - Bedburg-Hau
30/4/2006 - 15/10/2006

Museum Schloss Moyland zeigt im Obergeschoss des Schlosses 77 Rollbilder aus der niederländischen Privatsammlung Jon de Jong.

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Haiga - japońskie wierszo obrazy




Collection of Haiga
©　www.japonia.org.pl

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Japanese Reference


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山里の　月夜を運べ　庭の松
yamazato no tsukiyo o hakobe niwa no matsu

pines in my garden
bring the moonlit night
of this mountain village



　何事も　なくて春立つ　あしたかな
nanigoto mo nakute haru tatsu ashita kana

nothing special happened
and tomorrow
spring will start



　大蟻の　畳をあるく　暑さかな
ooari no tatami o aruku atsusa kana

big ants
walking over my tatami mats -
such a heat




ashigaru soldier

　足軽の　かたまつて行く　さむさ哉
ashigaru no katamatte iku samusa kana

the common foot soldiers
walking in a close group -
such a coldness



　凩や　日に々々　鴛の美しき
kogarashi ya hi ni hi ni on no utsukushiki

oh withering wind -
with every passing day
the mandarin ducks get more beautiful


Japanese quote from MASA





真丸に神馬の肥る四月かな
manmaru ni shinba no futoru shigatsu kana

the sacred horse
all round and fat -
it's april !


　©　www.city.ikeda.osaka.jp / photo
(c)池田市立歴史民俗資料館


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This is a scroll from a friend.
Can anyone read the poem and let me know the contents?

Thank you for your help!


*****************************
Related words

***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets　


Memorial Days of Famous People
....... A WORLDWIDE SAIJIKI

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Shomon and Tachibana Hokushi

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Basho jittetsu 芭蕉十哲 (ばしょうじってつ)
shoomon jittetsu 蕉門十哲
The 10 most important disciples of Matsuo Basho


source :　gyokueido.jimbou.ne
Painting by 豊秋舎亀泉

始に｢神無月のはじめ空さだめなきけしき身は風葉の行末なき心地して｣、各句
｢旅人と 我名よばれん はつ時雨　芭蕉｣
｢笠捨てて　塚をめぐるや夕しぐれ　北枝｣
｢うらやましおもひきるとき猫の恋　越人｣
｢葉かくれてみても蕣の浮世かな　野坡｣
｢山吹も巴も出田植かな　許六｣
｢春の夜は誰かはつ瀬の堂こもり　曾良｣
｢雪曇り身の上をなく嘉羅寿かな　丈草｣
｢蒲団着て寝たるすがたや東山　嵐雪｣
｢歌書よりも軍書に悲しよしの山　支考｣
｢須磨の浦うしろに何を閑古鳥　其角｣
｢魂棚の奥なつかしや親の顔　去来｣


Tachibana Hokushi 立花北枝 was the most important.
Enomoto Kikaku 榎本其角、Hattori Ransetsu 服部嵐雪、Mukai Kyorai 向井去来、Morikawa Kyoroku 森川許六、Kagami Shiko　Kagami Shikoo) 名務支考、Naito Joso (Naitoo Joosoo) 内藤丈草、Ochi Etsujin 越智越人、
Shida Yaba 志田野坡 , Sugiyama Sanpuu 杉山杉風 Sanpu, Sampu.
Sora, Kawai Sora 河合曾良

They all have an entry in their own name in the WKD:
. WKD : Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets .



. Iga Shoomon 伊賀蕉門 Basho students of Iga province.


shoomon 蕉門 Shomon, Basho students, Basho's school
shoofuu 蕉風 Shofu, Basho-style haiku


Teachings of Basho
. Shoomon 蕉門 The 80 Disciples of Basho .

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Tachibana Hokushi
立花北枝（たちばな・ほくし）

(1665-1718) 生年不詳 - 享保3年５月12日
Japanese sources quote his year of birth as unknown. The date of his death is May 12, 1718.

Tachibana Genjiro. Tokiya Genjiro (Togiya Genjiro) 研屋源四郎. He also used the names DOI, MORI and a few others.
土井, 森氏, 鳥翠台, 寿夭（妖）軒, 趙子.


He was born in a family of sword polishers.
He was the most important of the 10 disciples of Basho.

Hokushi was born in Kanazawa, a flourishing town during the Edo period.
He was one of the great pillars of the haiku groups in Northern Japan (Hokuriku).

His grave is in a famous park in Kanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture in Northern Japan.
心蓮社, Shinren-Sha



Some of his famous writings are:
『山中問答』『卯辰集』『喪の名残』『三四考』 『かやつり草』.

『けしの花』Poppy Flowers
The following haiku is a play of words with KESHI, the name of the flower, also meaning: to erase.

kaite mitari keshitari hate wa keshi no hana

sometimes I write
sometimes I erase it all
well, poppy flowers
Tr. Gabi Greve



Japanese Reference

~tokusabu 「立花北枝」の墓

立花北枝

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物書で扇引さく余波哉
mono kakite oogi hikisaku nagori kana

I wrote something
and ardently tore the fan
the parting!
Tr. Robert Aitken


scribbled on,
now the fan is torn up:
reluctant parting
Tr. Barnhill

This hokku has the cut marker KANA at the end of line 3.


Basho wrote this haiku for his dear friend Hokushi. It tells us about his feeling when saying good bye to a haiku student (as he must have done many times on his walk through the narrow roads of the North).
Tachibana accompanied Basho on his trip from Kanazawa to Matsuoka (now Fukui prefecture). In the temple Tenryu-Ji 天竜寺 there is this stone memorial at the place where he and Basho finally parted.
From here on, Basho was alone on his trip.

Oku no Hosomichi
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .



source :　xitoyo/basho

Two friends parting 余波の碑 - 丸岡天竜寺



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After selling the field,
All the more I could not sleep,--
The voices of the frogs.
Tr. R. H. Blyth


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焼にけりされども花はちりすまし
yake ni keri saredomo hana wa chiri sumashi

My house burned down
But anyway, it was after
The flower petals had already fallen.

ashes my burnt hut
but wonderful the cherry
blooming on my hill

Read more of his haiku here: (with haiga)
... thegreenleaf.co.uk/


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experimenting
I hung the moon
on various
branches of the pine
... www.wilderness.net


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散る時の 心やすさよ 芥子の花
chiru toki no kokoro yasusa yo keshi no hana

モルセラの独り言


さゞん花に茶をはなれたる茶人哉　　
sazanka ni cha o hanaretaru chajin kana

.. lereve



竹売（うっ）て酒にかへばや秋しぐれ　
take utte sake ni kaebaya aki shigure

... junobird3.blog66

... ... ...

馬洗ふ川すそ暗き水鶏かな / 水鶏 (くいな)
uma arau kawa suso kuraki kuina kana

大空も見えず若葉の奥深し
oozora mo miezu wakaba no oku fukashi

若竹や竹より出でて青きこと
wadadake ya take yori idete aoki koto

恥もせず我なり秋とおごりけり
haji mo sezu waga nari aki to ogorikeri

しら露もまだあらみのゝ行衛哉　
shiratsuyu mo mada arami no no yukue kana

かまきりや引きこぼしたる萩の露　
kamakiri ya hiki koboshitaru hagi no tsuyu

かたまらぬ角おもげなり夏の鹿

われ鐘のひヾきもあつし夏の月

柿の袈裟ゆすり直すや花の中　
kaki no kesa yusuri naosu ya hana no naka

くる秋は風ばかりでもなかりけり
kuru aki wa kaze bakari de mo nakari keri

朱の鞍や佐野へわたりの雪の駒　
shu no kura ya Sano e watari no kumo no koma

一田づゝ行めぐりてや水の音
hitota zuzu yukimegurite ya mizu no oto

from one field
to the next it flows -
sound of water


竈馬や顔に飛つくふくろ棚
koorogi ya kao ni hitsuku fukurodana　

しくれねば又松風の只をかず　
shigureneba mata matsukaze no tada okazu

うぐひすのはまり過ぎたる山家かな　
uguisu no hamari sugitaru sanka kana

...www.ese.yamanashi.ac.jp/



さびしさや一尺消へてゆく蛍
sabishisa ya isshaku kiete yuku hotaru

oh this loneliness !
for a moment it went out,
the firefly's light
Tr. Gabi Greve

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Chile

Las peonías marchitaron
y partimos
sin pesar

Suspender la luna en el pino
y descolgarla
para mejor contemplar

Ranas cantoras
¡Cómo ayudándose
con sus gritos!

De pie
entregando el espíritu
el espantapájaros

El sonido de la campana quebrada
También es cálido
Como la luna en verano

...www.escritores.cl/

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Wakare - Parting with friends
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .


. . . . . BACK TO


The 10 most important disciples of Matsuo Basho - Basho jittetsu 芭蕉十哲
. Matsuo Basho - Archives of the WKD .


Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets　


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Kubota Mantaro

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Kubota Mantaro 久保田万太郎
Mantarō Kubota, Kubota Mantaroo


Kubota Mantarō, 11 November 1889 - 6 May 1963)
was a Japanese author, playwright and Japanese poet.

He hardly used a haiku, poets name, but in his very early times he used

傘雨 San-U
暮雨 Bo-U

Kubota was born in the plebian Asakusa district of Tokyo, to a clothing merchant family. He became interested in stage plays at an early age, largely through the influence of his grandmother, who also provided financial support for him to attend college. While still a student at Keio University in 1911, he made his literary debut with the short novel Asagao ("Morning Glory", 朝顔) and a stage play Yugi ("Game", 末枯), both of which appeared in the university's journal. Starting from 1919, Kubota taught courses in literature at Keio University.

He went on to write many full-length novels, including Tsuyushiba ("Dew on the Grass"), and Shundei ("Spring Thaw"), which depicted the joys and sorrows and traditional lifestyle of ordinary people in working-class neighborhoods in old pre-war Tokyo.

In the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, his home in the Nippori district of Tokyo burned down, and he relocated to nearby Tabuchi, where he made the acquaintance of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.
In 1926, along with the novelist Masao Kume, he joined the Tokyo Central Broadcasting Station (now NHK), and later headed the drama and music department. He greatly contributed to the development of radio broadcast drama in its early stages.

In 1937, together with Kunio Kishida and Toyoo Iwata, Kubota created the Bungakuza theater company and became a leading figure in the modern theater circles in Japan.

Kubota lived in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture from 1945-1955. He first moved there when an air raid destroyed his Tokyo home. During those ten years, he made the acquaintance with many of the Kamakura literati as chairman of the Kamakura P.E.N. Club.

In the field of haiku poetry, Kubota came to edit the haiku magazine, Shunto. Although haiku remained merely a hobby, as he was more interested in novels and plays, Kubota published several haiku collections.

Kubota died on 6 May 1963 at the age of 73, of food poisoning, after eating an akagai clam at a party held by Ryuzaburo Umehara.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !





"Haiku is concerned with nature and humans."
Kubota Mantaro


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Mantaroo Ki 万太郎忌 (まんたろうき)
Mantaro Memorial Day
San-u Ki 傘雨忌（さんうき）

kigo for early summer


. SAIJIKI
Memorial Days of Famous People


あぢさゐの色には遠し傘雨の忌
ajisai no iro ni wa tooshi San-U no Ki


Suzuki Masajo 鈴木真砂女
(1906-2003)


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梅雨明けや さて 女坂 男坂
tsuyu ake ya sate onnna-saka otoko-saka

end of the rainy season -
well, the slope for women
the slope for men

Women's slope (onna-zaka) 女坂




おもふさま降りてあがりし祭りかな
omou sama futte agarishi matsuri kana

as it goes ...
a bit of rain, a bit of shine
the festival

Festival (matsuri 祭り)




牡蠣船にもちこむわかればなしかな
kakibune ni mochikomu wakarebanashi kana

talk of separation -
brought all the way to the
oyster ship

Oyster (kaki 牡蠣)





湯豆腐やいのちのはてのうすあかり
yudoofu ya inochi no hate no usuakari

hot tofu -
at the end of my days,
a faint light

Kubota lost his first wife and his son commited suicide.
Hot tofu (yudoofu 湯豆腐)





奉公にゆく誰彼やばい廻し
hookoo ni yuku darekare ya bai mawashi

someone is leaving
to become an apprentice -
spinning tops

Autumn games and kigo




吉原のある日露けきとんぼかな　　
Yoshiwara no aru hi tsuyukeki tonbo kana
　
in Yoshiwara
all wet with dew
a dragonfly

Yoshiwara, pleasure quarters of Old Edo


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石蹴りの子に道聞くや一葉忌　
ishikeri no ko ni michi kiku ya Ichiyoo ki
　
asking the way
from children kicking stones -
Ichiyo memorial day

. . Ichiyoo Ki 一葉忌 (いちようき)
Memorial day of Higuchi Ichiyo


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淋しさはつみ木あそびにつもる雪
sabishisa wa tsumiki asobi ni tsumoru yuki

this feeling of loneliness -
he plays with his building blocks
as the snow heaps up

He wrote this for his son, who was jsut 3 years old and always playing alone.

. Emotions used in haiku


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パンにバタたつぶりつけて春惜しむ
pan ni bata tappuri tsukete haru oshimu

bread with
a lot of butter ...
lamenting spring


. Bread and Haiku . 　



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紫のさまで濃からず花菖蒲
murasaki no sama de kokarazu hana ayame

purple just like that
and not too strong -
this iris

Iris (ayame, shoobu, kakitsubata, airisu)


All haiku translated by Gabi Greve



MORE
. Kubota Mantaro, translated by Gabi Greve 　


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Japanese Reference

久保田万太郎 （ くぼたまんたろう ）.


*****************************
Related words

***** Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets　


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Nishiyama Soin Danrin

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Nishiyama Soin (Soo-In) 西山宗因

（1605 - May 5, 1682）. Souin Nishiyama　
慶長10年～ 天和2年3月28日


Sooin Ki 宗因忌 (そういんき)
Saioo Ki 西翁忌（さいおうき）
baioo ki 梅翁忌（ばいおうき）
"memorial day of the old man who loved plum blossoms"

Soin Memorial Day
kigo for late spring





He was a haiku poet of the early Edo period and the founder of the
"Danrin School" Danrin-Ha 談林派(だんりんは） of Haiku.
Danrin literally means "talkative forest".

He was born in the Higo province 肥後国 (now Kumamoto, Kyushu) and his name was Toyoichi Nishiyama Toyoichi (西山豊一). His father was a follower of the famous Lord Kato Kiyomasa. He had the chance to go to Kyoto and study to become a Renga master there. In 1623, due to internal political problems, he became a masterless samurai. He went to Osaka to teach Renga with a more leisurely and free touch, that appealed to the taste of the merchants of Osaka.
Soin had also studied therenga style of Arakida Moritake (1473-1549) .

In 1647 he became the teacher of a group of poets at the Shrine Tenmangu at Osaka 大阪天満宮.

Basho met Soin around 1675.
Soin joined the Shofu School of Basho for a while, but later turned back to his own style, the Danrin.




This new school evolved after Matsunaga Teitoku 松永貞徳(まつながていとく）had established the Teimon School 貞門(ていもん） of
haikai 俳諧(はいかい）. Teimon was a rather bookish school, relying heavily on the Japanese and Chinese classics and needed a lot of intensive study by its practitioners.


“The art of haikai places fabrication before truth.
Haikai is a joke within a fantasy."
source :　Peipei Qui

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Shibu Uchiwa Hento 渋団扇返答 Answer to the "adstringent fan"
in answer to the lectures of the Teimon school.


. Teimon 貞門 the Teimon school .

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Ihara Saikaku was one of the many famous disciples of Soin.



© PHOTO :　www.city.yatsushiro.kumamoto.jp

Painting by Saikaku, text by Soin.

かくれもなき法師すがたと見奉りて　
ながむとて花にもいたし首の骨　
nagamu tote hana ni mo itashi kubi no hone

梅翁 "old plum"
(Translation see below)


Written at the shrine Tenmangu in Osaka　天満宮
when enjoying Plum Blossoms.


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Just yesterday I watched a Japanese program about Matsuo Basho and his development as haiku poet.

From the haikai Teimon school, mostly allusions to the classics of Japan and China (mind you, Basho spent hours and years reading and remembering the Classics to be able to use them properly later),
to the lighter Danrin school, mostly dajare, puns with words, intellect and cleverness and then ...

Basho took off to walk along Western Japan (Nozarashi ...) to begin writing haiku that would reflect his "state of mind / soul (kokoro)", his inside as mirrored by the nature outside ...

so he mumbled ... furu ike ya

to start the school of Shofu style 蕉風 (from baSHO ... meaning Basho style haiku) as a new one in Edo. And Basho made a good living as a teacher of this new school, with makoto, the "truth" as one of its bases.
He also promoted: Fueki Ryuko (fuueki ryuukoo), "permanence and change".


Gabi Greve, July 2008



. shoomon 蕉門 Shomon, Basho's school .

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quote from
Interview With Professor Peipei Qiu

Bashô's encounter with the Zhuangzi was not a coincidence. It was part of the haikai poets' long time effort to make the genre a legitimate and profound poetic form. haikai, or the comic linked verse, as the word is often translated, is a popular poetic genre composed by multiple authors in an alternation of seventeen- and fourteen-syllable brief verses.
When haikai reflourished during the latter half of the seventeenth century, the haikai poets faced two seemingly contradictory demands.

On the one hand, they had to go beyond the limits of the classical poetic conventions in order to reach a popular audience and to distinguish haikai from the classical linked verse (renga).

On the other hand, they needed intertextual structures and a shared knowledge of codified poetic vocabulary to increase the capacity of each short verse and to make the poetic dialogue possible in a group composition. The latter demand decided that haikai, though a parodic, unconventional genre of popular culture, never completely broke away from the classical tradition. Instead, haikai poets constantly looked to the past for inspiration.

However, the existing classical Japanese poetic tradition could not provide all haikai needed, because haikai relied essentially upon the use of haigon, the vernacular and Chinese words that were not part of the classical poetic diction. haikai poets, then, found the Zhuangzi a useful reference. The Zhuangzi had been known in Japan since the Nara period and had the status and popularity of a classic among educated people. It was envisioned as a source of poetic essence by the haikai poets for different reasons.

Before Bashô, the Danrin School, and some Teimon school poets as well, already tried to include the Zhuangzi as an authoritative source of poetic essences. To the Teimon poets, the Zhuangzi was a model text for the allegorical expression of haikai.

The Danrin, on the contrary, took the bold laughter, the deliberate reversal of conventional meaning, and the unrestrained imagination of the Zhuangzi as a congenial frame of reference for their characteristic haikai approach.

Bashô studied with both the Danrin and the Teimon masters, but his adaptation of the Daoist ideas in haikai achieved a much higher level. As I mentioned earlier, Bashô was able to grasp the spirit and principles of the Zhuangzi through their embodiment in Chinese poetry. Beside the themes of individual freedom such as "carefree wandering," the Zhuangzi asserts an aesthetic conviction that sees beautiful qualities in ordinary and even "low" things/beings.

This makes it immediately possible to discover profound meanings in the down-to-earth topics and vernacular language, which haikai poets took as the hallmark of their poetry. Bashô also incorporated the central idea of the Zhuangzi, naturalness and spontaneity, in his compositional theory to reduce the limitation of the rigid rules of the linked verse. Therefore, Bashô was able to use the Daoist classic ingeniously to appropriate haikai's popular, unconventional nature while at the same time imbuing its vernacular language and mundane themes with high cultural values. The haikai poets' adaptation of the Zhuangzi is an important phase in haikai's evolvement so it is hard to speculate if Bashô would have achieved the same success without the influence of the Zhuangzi. Yet, we can be certain that without the Zhuangzi, Bashô's haikai as well as the entire Chinese poetic legacy would be quite different.

source : 　simply haiku, 2005

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ながむとて花にもいたし首の骨
nagamu to te hana ni mo itashi kubi no hone

Donald Keene translates this poem as:

Thanks to my gazing
I got a pain from the blossoms
In the bone of my neck

The Keene translation (though useful) seems to miss the humour of the poem. It was too dry for my liking, and without any of the word play, or comedy. I decided to try my hand at translating them, and came up with three variations which I think are more successful at capturing the original tone of the poem.

whenever gazing
at flowers-
a pain in the neck too

whenever gazing at
flowers, a s well
in my neck's bone

whenever gazing-
blossoms a' pain
in the neck too

source : wayfarergallery.



Having seen them long,
I hold the flowers dear, but ah,
The pain in my neck.
Tr. Nobuyuki Yuasa




Compiled by Larry Bole
Translating Haiku Forum

nagamu tote hana ni mo itashi kubi no hone

Soin's haiku quoted above alludes to a waka by Saigyo:

nagamu to te
hana ni mo itaku
narenureba
chiru wakane koso
kanashikarikere

variously translated as:

Gazing and gazing
At the cherry blossms--
What are my feelings!
But when they fall and depart,
How sad I am!
trans. Blyth


Thinking to gaze at them, I drew extremely close to the cherry blossoms, making the parting ever so painful.
trans. James Brandon


Gazing at them,
these blossoms have grown
so much a part of me,
to part with them when they fall
seems bitter indeed!
trans. Burton Watson


"Detached" observer
Of blossoms finds himself in time
Intimate with them--
So, when they separate from the branch,
It's he who falls...deeply into grief.
trans. William R. LaFleur


Robin D. Gill comments:
Soin...takes 11 syllables from one of Saigyo's more boring blossom-viewing poems (SKS#126) [SKS = Shinkokinshuu], and its homophone, "painful."

Blyth points out that:
Saigyo's 'itaku', very..., becomes Soin's 'itashi', painful.


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settling white dew
does not discriminate
each drop its home


No, no,
not even the cherry blooms,
Can equal the moon tonight.

source : 　thegreenleaf.co.uk

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Cherry Tree in honor or Nishiyama 西山宗因桜
at the temple Fukushu-Ji in Kyushu

北九州市小倉北区の古刹・広寿山福聚寺のしだれ桜


© PHOTO :　www.seishunza.gr.jp


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the year comes to an end -
things just happen, really just happen
again in spring

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峰入は宮も草鞋(わらぢ)の旅路かな
mine-iri wa miya mo waraji mo tabiji kana

"entering the mountain"
travelling from a shrine
with staw sandals


. mine-iri 峰入 (みねいり) "entry in the mountain" 　a Shugendo practise of the yamabushi ascets


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Related words


Saigyo the Poet (Saigyoo 西行)


Introducing Japanese Haiku Poets　

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