Carpe Diem #528 Basho (6), "my dreams start to wander"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Well ... this is it ... our last episode of our Special CDHK-month with only haiku written by the 'big-five', Basho, Chiyo-Ni, Buson, Issa and Shiki. I think we have had a wonderful month and I also think the haiku by the big five have really inspired you all. To me it was a busy month, but ... well it's what I like to do ... being your host at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, a haiku-family in which we can share our deepest thoughts and feelings ... and I hope you all feel that loving environment as we are a haiku family.

Today, as I already said, our last haiku by the 'big-five' and that's a haiku by (my master) Matsuo Basho. At the start of this month I shared the first haiku written by Basho when he was around 20 yrs old and to close this wonderful month I love to share his last haiku, his death-poem, with you all here at CDHK.
I have told you earlier that it was a common use for poets to write a last poem before they died and so did Basho. I think it's one of his masterpieces, but that's just my thought and maybe you, my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers, have other ideas about that. Feel free to share them here at our CDHK haiku-family.

Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)

Basho's own death poem is thought provoking and enlightening:

tabi ni yande  yume wa kareno wo  kake-meguru

ill on a journey
my dreams start to wander
across dessicated fields

© Matsuo Basho (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)

Dessicated fields can be the time that has passed. The moment captured is true and original, an insight into the particular time of Matsuo Basho's last days. The journey is long and could represent life, as he is now ill. No longer having control of your destiny or your dreams as they go wandering back to better times. The haiku creates an image of finality of a great journey that is cut short due to an illness, which could perhaps represent death. The reader is left to ponder and figure out the meaning of these carefully chosen words.
Basho himself once said: "I will die on one of my journeys" and he did just that ... Basho, in my opinion, the greatest haiku-poet of all times ... I am grateful that I may say that he was my teacher, he learned me how to write haiku ...

dessicated fields (of corn)

With this haiku by Matsuo Basho ends our CDHK-month July and now we will go on with our journey into the philosophy of Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese philosopher, poet, painter and writer. With his "Sand and Foam" (an anthology of his aphorisms) in our hand we will go on a new path to discover new thoughts and ideas and of course we will find new gems, diamonds and masterpieces in our haiku.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 2nd at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our next episode, our first of August,  foot prints, later on.
For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.