Carpe Diem Special #146, Etsujin's "covered with cherry blossoms"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you maybe can remember this month, as we are on the trail with Basho, all our CD-Specials are by one of Basho’s disciples. Today I have chosen for one of his greatest ten disciples Ochi Etsujin.

Ochi Etsujin  was born in Northern Echigo, but later lived in Nagoya. He is supposed to have been very handsome. He was the center of the Basho disciples in Owari.

"Etsujin" lit. means "man from Etsu" (provinces of Echigo and Echizen in Northern Japan). He wrote haiku under the pseudonym  Kinkaoo, which means “old man rose of sharon”

Etsujin was Basho’s companion when he traveled to Sarashina .

hana ni uzumorete yume yori sugu ni shinan kana

covered with cherry blossoms

if I could die right now
in this dream of mine

© Ochi Etsujin (Tr. Gabi Greve)

And here to conclude this short CD-Special I have another wonderful haiku written by Etsujin, it’s his Jisei (or deathpoem):

aki no kure hi ya tomosan to toi ni kuru

autumn evening -
"shall we make light?"
she comes to ask

© Etsujin (Tr. Gabi Greve)

This Carpe Diem Special episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until May 11th at noon (CET). Have fun!

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.

Carpe Diem #527 Shiki (5), "a departed soul"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Here it is our last haiku by Shiki and I have chosen to use his deathpoem, his Jisei. It's his very last haiku he wrote before he died as was a common use in classical Japan. I think in our time there will be also haiku-poets who write a last haiku before they die, but I don't know that for sure.

Shiki also wrote his death-poem and there is a nice story about that moment ... I love to share that here with you.

Shiki on his sick bed

Because of a debilitating disease (tuberculosis) Masaoka Shiki had to be confined to his bed for almost 7 years until he passed away. Despite the pain, he continued writing poems while lying on his back. When Shiki came near to death, one of his disciples, Hekigoto was at Shiki's bedside. Hekigoto wrote about how Shiki wrote his final three haiku as follows:

[…] "It was around 10 o'clock on the morning of September 18. I dipped his old writing brush ,whose stem and brush were both thin, full of ink and had him hold it in his right hand. Then quite abruptly in the center of the paper Shiki began to write readily "sponge gourd has bloomed " , and a little below that phrase, he again moved his brush in a breath "choked by phlegm" I was a little curious what he was going to write next and was watching the paper closely, then at last he wrote "a departed soul", which bit into my heart". [...]


Hekigoto was very touched when Shiki began to write the poem. Shiki was so weak, and desperately coughing, but he still had a determination to write these haiku.

sponge gourd has bloomed
choked by phlegm
a departed soul

© Masaoka Shiki

As I read the above story I thought that I also wish to share a haiku by Hekigoto (1873-1937), but I didn't know haiku written by him. So I had to sought out the Internet and I ran into the next haiku written by Hekigoto.

Hekigoto (1873-1937)

from a bathing tub
I throw water into the lake -
slight muddiness appears

© Hekigoto

Hekigoto was probably the most famous of Shiki's students. He was of the younger generation of haiku greats. His earlier poems followed the traditional haiku format. Later in his career he began to abandon the traditional form. He wanted his poems to come as close to reality as possible without the interference of man made rules. He started the New Trend Haiku Movement. He experimented with disregarding the seventeen syllable pattern.

far fireworks
sounding, otherwise
not a thing

© Hekigoto

Are these haiku gorgeous or not gorgeous? That's up to you to say, but to me they are wonderful. It will not be an easy task to write/compose an all new haiku (or more) to come close to the spirit of these haiku, or this haiku by Shiki.

Credits: Dew (awesome websit with wallpapers)

Here is my attempt:

morning dew
evaporates in the early sunlight -
spirit climbs to the sky

© Chèvrefeuille

Hm ... I don't know ... but  I like it ...

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until July 31st at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, a new Ghost Writer post, later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all.

Carpe Diem #465, Sacrifice

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Sacrifice ... giving all, even life ... that's sacrifice, but what has sacrifice to do with haiku? Not much I think. To me writing haiku is no sacrifice, hosting CDHK isn't a sacrifice. Of course it takes a lot of time, but a sacrifice? No .....
On the other hand ... haiku has a lot to do with sacrifice ...! Every haiku-poet wrote a Jisei or Deathpoem. Sacrifice to the max. Living our life fully as a haiku-poet, close to nature giving up all luxery, looking for that one moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown into water to write THE all time perfect haiku ... day in, day out ... that's sacrifice.
I love to share here a few Jisei, death poems, of a few haiku poets (unknown and known):

heading to the end

treading through heavy snow
way of the brush

© Wakyu

it's become a habit
bowing to the west
New Year’’s dawn

© Wagin

fallen ill on a journey
my dreams
wander over withered fields

© Basho

(Source: Haiku by David Anderson )

Credits: Runes

This prompt was referring to the legend "Odin's Discovery of the Runes" which you can read HERE 

I have tried to wrote a ''deathpoem" myself ... it's not my intention to die soon, but sometimes I think about what to write on to my tombstone. So I thought a Jisei had to be it ...

finally peace
one with nature and the Universe
a haiku myself

(c) Chèvrefeuille

This episode will be open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until May 14th at noon. I will try to post our next episode, Raven, later on today for now ... just have fun!