Carpe Diem #1659 Tan Renga Challenge Month May 2019 (6) chestnut

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our TRC month May 2019 in which we are creating Tan Renga together with known and unknown haiku poets. Today I have a nice haiku written by Matsuo Basho for you to work with. There is a small story behind this haiku and I hope you can appreciate that I tell you the background of it.

As you maybe know, Basho was interested in man, he was homosexual common for his time homosexuality was accepted. Maybe you can remember that I told you about "Wakasu" (this was a common way of same-sex culture in the ancient Samourai class. It was a common use for adult man to have a relationship with minors. Of course in nowadays Japan this isn't an accepted habit as far as I know.) and as you maybe know Basho was a son of a low ranked samourai and maybe he was once a "wakasu" himself. There is however no reference towards that in the stories of his life.
Basho was once in love with the son of good friend of him. The boy was 14 years of age and had a warm relation with Basho.

Chestnut Tree in full bloom

In several of his haiku Basho is referring to his homosexuality. The haiku I have chosen to work with is such a haiku. I will not give you further explanation about this haiku ... I leave that to you.

Here is the haiku to work with:

autumn moonlight--
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut.

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

It's a wonderful haiku, even if you don't know the background on it this is a beauty. I have given it a try to create the 2nd stanza to this one. Here is my attempt:

autumn moonlight --
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut                                             © Basho

at the crack of the day
birds start to praise their Creator               © Chèvrefeuille

I think this is a very nicely crafted continuation of the haiku by Basho. Maybe there is even a small reference to the background of the haiku by Basho.

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until May 14th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

PS.: I try another linking widget (again). Click on the CDHK logo below to find the linking widget.