Carpe Diem #896 Neko Yanagi (pussy willow)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We are almost through the first half of January, so our prompts of this month will become more spring-like, but are still for winter. Today I have a beautiful classical kigo for you, Neko Yanagi (pussy willow), and I think that in some regions of the world the pussy willow already starts blooming.

I searched the internet for a little background on the pussy willow, especially in the Chinese and Japanese literary world and I found a few wonderful pieces of poetry.

Li Ch'ing-Chao (1084-1151), a famous female Chinese poet, has this to say about the pussy willows:

Warm rain and soft breeze by turns
Have just broken
And driven away the chill.
Moist as the pussy willows,
Light as the plum blossoms,
Already I feel the heart of Spring vibrating. 

Su Tung-p’o (1036-1101), the famous poet of the T'ang period, writes about the beauty of the green leaves on the willow branches in spring:

yanagi wa midori, hana wa beni

Willows stand for things green,   flowers for things red.  

Neko Yanagi (pussy willow) used as a New Year decoration

 

During the Heian period (794-1185) the court at Kyoto also adored the willows and the cherry blossoms as harbingers of Spring.

And I found a few nice haiku written by Issa and Basho:

cha no kemuri yanagi to tomo ni soyogu nari

tea steam
and willow
sway together

© Issa (Tr. Chris Drake)

haremono ni fureru yanagi no shinae kana

supple as the hands
softly touching the tumors —
willow sprays bending.

© Basho (Tr. Yuasa)

And I had to write a haiku myself with this prompt. It wasn't easy, but finally (after running through my archives) I found a nice second stanza of a Tan Renga. That stanza inspired me to write the following haiku.

tears of a geisha
her virginity lost to a soldier -
pussy willow blooms

© Chèvrefeuille

Not a real "winter-kigo" haiku I think, but in a way I like this haiku a lot ... don't ask me why, because I can not give words to that feeling I have about this haiku.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until January 17th at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, our 3rd CD Special, later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all.