Carpe Diem Sparkling Stars # 21, Buson's "I came to the cherry blossoms"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

What a joy ... my Sakura has started to bloom, a little bit later then last year, but still it's a beauty. As I told you earlier I was a bit anxious that the fragile cherry blossoms would be scattered through the first tough spring storm here in The Netherlands. And as you all know I am very proud on my Sakura ... so I have chosen a Sparkling Star about cherry blossoms composed by Buson. Buson, one of the four greatest haiku poets, was also a haiga artist as you have seen in one of the earlier post this week. However ... Basho ... stays my master, but I also learn a lot of Buson lately. He (Buson) has an eye for beauty in nature and I think that in this haiku which I have chosen ... he paints with words.

hana ni kite hana ni ineburu itoma kana

I came to the cherry blossoms;
I slept beneath them;
this was my leisure

© Yosa Buson

When we see that cherry blossoms are something to sleep under, or dance under, we have attained a state beyond that of the average artist or poet. Beauty and significance are to be imbided without strain or affectation. A life of art, like that of goodness, is to be lived as the normal, the ordinary thing, without letting the right hand know or care about what the left hand does. All aesthetic and ethical pleasure must be spontaneous, without meaning or gain, just like the fish in the water and the bird in the air.

Sakura in bloom © Chèvrefeuille

The above photo I made early this morning, the sun started to become a bit stronger, but was still hidden behind a thin veil of clouds, but the color of the leaves and those fragile cherry blossoms made me very happy. My Sakura has bloomed ...

I love to get back to the haiku by Buson, because there are a few things which are rather strange ... First Buson IS part of the haiku, and that's not according to the classical haiku rules, because one of the major rules is that haiku is free of persona, but Buson places himself in his haiku. Why? I think he felt really part of the scene he gives an impression of in his haiku. Then there is the past tense, he places his haiku in the past and that also is a violation of the classical haiku rules, but on the other hand ... Buson remembered the scene as being wonderful ... I think this haiku is not the original haiku but a re-done haiku far after the time happening. Makes that his haiku a "bad" haiku? I think not ... I even think ... bringing himself in the haiku and placing the haiku in the past makes this haiku even stronger ... a wonderful memory ... and I am very certain that Buson has turned this haiku into a wonderful haiga ... after all .... he was a haiga master.

The task for you, my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers, is to compose another haiku with cherry blossom as theme (my favorite theme) following the classical rules as there are:

1. 5-7-5 syllables
2. a kigo (in this particular haiku) cherry blossom (a spring kigo)
3. a kireji (a cutting word, in Western languages mostly interpunction)
4. interchangeable first and third line
5. if possible, a deeper spiritual meaning

More about these classical rules you can find in Carpe Diem's Haiku Writing Techniques e-book (chapter 10), which you can find in the menu above.

As you all know ... I am not such a fan of the classical way of writing/composing haiku, but I had to try and this is what I accomplished:

finally dreams become true

just one peaceful spring night -
blossoms of cherry bloom

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode of our Sparkling Stars is open for your submissions today at noon (CET) and it will remain open until next Saturday April 11th at noon (CET).