Carpe Diem #1776 arranging the plum-flowers (Taigi)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

If you are a long time participant here, you will remember that special feature "Revise That Haiku", in which I challenged you to "revise" a given haiku by one of the classical haiku poets. Today I love to bring a "reprise" of one of the episodes of "Revise That Haiku".

For this episode I have chosen a haiku written by Taigi (1709-1771 ?), a contemporary and friend of Buson. I will first give the haiku (including the Japanese Romaji) and then I will give the description of the moment which led to the haiku.

Plum Blossom (Chinese painting)

umi ikete tsuki to mo wabin tomoshikage

arranging the plum-flowers,
I would enjoy them in the light of the lamp,
as if in the moonlight

© Taigi (1709-1771 ?)

The brevity of haiku is not something differnt from, but a part of the peotical life; it is not only a form of expression but a mode of living more immediately, more closely to life as may be illustrated in the above haiku by Taigi.

The original of the above haiku is even more difficult, literally: "arranging the plum, as if the moon, I would savour, lamp-light" (Wabiru translated 'enjoy', 'means' to live a life of poetry in poverty). The poet has arranged the flowers in a vase, and wishes to see them in the light of the moon, but there being no moon, he lights the lamp instead, and adds its light to the poetry and the beauty of the flowers.
The whole of the poet's life is shown in this action and the essence of the verse in wabin. This poverty, this asceticism of life and form in haiku, this absence of luxury and decoration finds its philosophical and transcendental expression in Emanuel Swedenborg's (a Swedish philosopher who lived from 1688 until 1772) "Heaven and Hell" (paragraph 178); after he has described the garments of the angels, some of which glow with flame, some of which shine with light, he adds:

"But the angels of the inmost heaven are not clothed".

Well ... with the desciption of the moment I think you can revise that haiku ... so ... "break a leg", have fun, be inspired and share your revised Taigi-haiku with us at Caroe Diem Haiku Kai.

Plum Blossom

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until November 13th at noon (CET). I will try to publish our new episode later on.

Carpe Diem #1511 Basho's Blossoms (Revise That Haiku)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

As you all know I see Basho (1644-1694) as my sensei (master) and my master has written a lot of haiku inspired on the beauty of the diversity of blossoms. So for today's episode I have chosen to challenge you to revise a "blossom"-haiku written by Basho, but let me first give you a few examples of haiku on blossom by Basho:

haru tachite mada kokonoka no noyama kana

passed the first day of spring,
it’s only nine days
on the hills and fields.

shoshun mazu sake ni ume uru nioi kana

firstly, at the beginning of spring,
they sell sake and plum blossoms
and I smell them.

konohodo wo hana ni rei iu wakare kana

“thanks for all”
expressing my gratitude to blossoms
at the parting.

(C) Matsuo Basho

!! If you not specify the name of the blossom than in haiku blossom always means the blossoms of the cherry tree !!

For example: In the 2nd haiku in the Japanese line you can find "ume", "ume" means plum blossom.

Mount Fuji "surrounded" by Cherry Blossoms

For today's challenge revising the haiku I have chosen two haiku by Basho. I will give both of the "stories" behind the haiku maybe it can help you to revise the haiku. You may choose one or two haiku to revise. Not the above three by the way, but the two following now:

Haiku 1:

hana no kumo  kane wa ueno ka  asakusa ka

a cloud of cherry blossoms;

the temple bell,－

is it Ueno, is it Asakusa?

© Basho (1644-1694, taken from R.H. Blyth’s "Haiku, Volume 2)

R. H. Blyth translated Basho’s haiku into English and noted:

It is early afternoon.  The air is warm and hazy.  As Basho sits in his hut at Fukagawa, he can see, when he wishes, the cloud-like masses of cherry-blossoms in the direction of Ueno and Asakusa.  The boom of a great temple bell comes sounding across the fields; it must be from one of these two places.

Sakura

Haiku 2:

samazama no koto omoidasu sakura kana

how many, many things

they call to mind

these cherry-blossoms!

© Basho

R. H. Blyth also translated Basho’s haiku into English and noted:

Basho renounced the world on the death of Sengin, that is,Todo Yoshitada, son of Todo Shinshiro, who was in charge of Ueno Castle.  Twenty years later, in 1687, he was invited by his former master Todo Shinshiro, and the above verse was the result.  Looking at the same flowers in the same garden when he had spent his youth with his friend, Basho felt what Wordsworth says in the mouth of the Wanderer:

I see around me here

Things which you cannot see; we die, my Friend,

Nor we alone, but that which each man loved

And prized in his peculiar nook of earth

Dies with him, or is changed.

© Wordsworth

Two amazing haiku by Basho to revise. Don't be shy to revise his haiku, because of his great name, because Basho also revised his haiku several times. For example: He revised his "Narrow Road Into The Deep North" several times to make it the perfect haibun. So no shame to revise ...

This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until October 8th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our next episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Revisit the first episode ever of our special feature Revise That Haiku (October 12th 2013)

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #43 Troiku Challenge: My Lucky Tea

!! Open for your submissions next Sunday July 29th at 7:00 PM (CEST) !!

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We have had a wonderful week here at CDHK and now we can take a rest ... it's time for a new weekend meditation. This weekend I have chosen for a Troiku Challenge. Maybe you can remember what that means. I will give you two haiku to work with. First you have to create a so called "fusion"-haiku and second ... with that "fusion"-haiku you have to create a Troiku. Troiku is a nice creative way of working with haiku that I invented back in 2012. More on Troiku you can find above in the menu.

For this Troiku Weekend-Meditation I have chosen two haiku by Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828), one of the five greatest haiku poets ever. His haiku are k niwn for the simple choice of words, but also for it's emotions. Issa had a tough life in which he had to deal with several very sad things. For example his children died on a very young age.

Mount Fuji (Japan, Honshu Island)

Here are the haiku to work with:

tonight's moon--
how many mountains resemble
the ones back home?

going outside
plum blossoms dive in...
my lucky tea

© Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David G. Lanoue)

By the way "lucky tea" is the first cup of tea on New Year's Day.

Two beauties by Issa. I hope these will awaken your muse and will inspire you to create first a "fusion"-haiku and than a Troiku with your "fusion"-haiku. Enjoy your weekend.

This weekend meditation is open for your submissions next Sunday July 29th at 7:00 PM (CEST) and will remain open until August 5th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new regular episode around that same time. For now .... have fun!

Carpe Diem #1473 Fragile Beauty

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of our wonderful Haiku Kai. This month it's all about imagination and I think that's one of the pillars of haiku. Why? Because as a haiku poet you have to imagine the scene you try to catch in your haiku, but it also 'triggers' the imagination of the reader.

Again I have a lack of time, so again I have made it myself easy. I only will give you an image to inspire you.

Plum Blossom (photo © Chèvrefeuille)

scent of plum blossoms
mingles with the scent of the hearth
winter departure

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 18th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem Theme Week 3: Magnolia Blossoms, haiku by Soseki Natsume; 2: plum flower temple

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's my pleasure to bring to you our second episode of the Third Carpe Diem Theme Week "Magnolia Blossoms, haiku by Soseki Natsume".

This Theme Week is a little bit different than the other two Theme Weeks we had, but I think Soseki Natsume deserves his own Theme Week here at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. This week I will share haiku written by Soseki and I hope to tell you all a little bit more about this haiku poet and contemporary of Shiki.

Yesterday I shared a haiku by Soseki on Magnolia Blossoms and one way or the other it turned out that Soseki has written more haiku themed with blossom. So I have another nice haiku by him for you:

Plum flower temple:

Voices rise
From the foothills.

© Sōseki Natsume (Tr. Soiku Shigematsu)

A beautiful haiku I would say. As I read this one I immediately thought about a temple which is known for its beautiful plum trees, Tenman-Gu Shrine in Hofu (Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan).

Credits: Plum Flower Temple, Tenman-Gu Shrine

This Tenman-Gu Shrine fits the "back-bone" of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, because I am promoting haiku as an art and I try to help you all to improve your haiku writing skills. Tenman-Gu Shrine is dedicated to the god of learning. Of course I don't pretend to be your master, but I love to share my knowledge about haiku in a respectful way with the world.

Back to this haiku by Soseki ... did he create this haiku when he was viewing the plum blossoms at Tenman-Gu Shrine? It could be ... I wasn't there, but as I look at this image above than I realize that I would be inspired for sure at such a sight.

breathtaking
a sea of colorful plum blossoms
departing winter

© Chèvrefeuille

This Theme Week episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and it will remain open until April 20th 10.00 PM (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #906 Ume-no-hana (ume flower)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

January is running towards its end. We have only two episodes to go and than ... classic meets modern will be over. I hope you all did like this month ...

Today our prompt is Ume-no-hana (ume flower) and it's a classical kigo for the end of winter, or the last part of winter. Ume-no-hana (ume flower) is mostly translated as "plum" but it's more an "apricot".

I have a little background about the "ume-flower" for you:

Next to the Cherry blossom, the plum blossoms are loved by Japanese poets and where enjoyed even more than the cherry in the Heian peroid.

They are a symbol of refinement, purity and nobility and also a reminder of past love. Japanese tradition holds that the ume functions as a protective charm against evil, so the ume is traditionally planted in the northeast of the garden, the direction from which evil is believed to come.

I have found a lot of beautiful haiku and tanka (waka) about/on plum blossoms. First a tanka (waka) written by Sugawara Michizane:

When the east wind blows,
Send me your perfume,
Blossoms of
the plum:
Though your lord be absent,
Forget not the spring.

© Sugawara Michizane (845 – 903) (Tr. G. Bownas A. Thwaite)

Really a wonderful tanka (waka). This tanka I read for the very first time several years ago on the wall of one of the buildings of the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden (The Netherlands).

Here are a few haiku about/on Ume (plum) blossoms:

even the heavenly gods
crowd' round
plum blossoms

© Kobayashi Issa (Tr. David Lanoue)

ume ichi-rin ichirin hodo no atatakasa

one plum blossom
brings us just one more
step to the warmth

© Hattori Ransetsu (1654-1707) (Tr: Gabi Greve)

Credits: shira ume ni akuru yo bakari to nari ni keri

shira ume ni akuru yo bakari to nari ni keri

The night almost past,
through the white plum blossoms
a glimpse of dawn.

© Yosa Buson

Of course I had to find a haiku by my master Basho to honor him and I found the following haiku about/on plum blossoms:

scent of plum blossoms
on the misty mountain path
a big rising sun

© Matsuo Basho

And next to my love for Cherry blossoms I also wrote several haiku about/on Plum blossoms, here are a few haiku from my archive. These are all written at the start of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai back in 2012:

red plum blooming
while the last snow is melting -
finally Spring

the shivering cold
creeps into my old skeleton -
white plum blossoms

what a feast!
finally winter has gone
early plum blossoms

covered with snow
the fragile plum blossoms
longing for Spring

For closure:

scent of plum blossoms
mingles with the scent of the hearth
winter departure

© Chèvrefeuille

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until February 1st at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our last episode of January 2016, meditation, later on. For now ... have fun!

Carpe Diem's Revise that haiku #1, a haiku by Taigi (1709-1771)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

I love to introduce an all new challenging feature to you all. This new feature I have called "Revise That Haiku". And as the title says it's the goal to REVISE a given haiku. How does this new feature go?

In every, monthly, episode I will share a haiku written by a classical (or a non-classical, modern) haiku poet. I will describe the moment which inspired the haiku poet to compose that specific haiku. To REVISE that haiku you read the description of the moment and let it inspire you to write a revised version of that haiku. You may revise it in a classical or non-classical way, but it has to be different from the given haiku.

For this first episode of "Revise That Haiku" I have chosen a haiku written by Taigi (1709-1771 ?), a contemporary and friend of Buson. I will first give the haiku (including the Japanese Romaji) and then I will give the description of the moment which led to the haiku.

Plum flowers

umi ikete tsuki to mo wabin tomoshikage

arranging the plum-flowers,
I would enjoy them in the light of the lamp,
as if in the moonlight

(c) Taigi (1709-1771 ?)

The brevity of haiku is not something differnt from, but a part of the peotical life; it is not only a form of expression but a mode of living more immediately, more closely to life as may be illustrated in the above haiku by Taigi.

The original of the above haiku is even more difficult, literally: "arranging the plum, as if the moon, I would savour, lamp-light" (Wabiru translated 'enjoy', 'means' to live a life of poetry in poverty). The poet has arranged the flowers in a vase, and wishes to see them in the light of the moon, but there being no moon, he lights the lamp instead, and adds its light to the poetry and the beauty of the flowers.
The whole of the poet's life is shown in this action and the essence of the verse in wabin. This poverty, this asceticism of life and form in haiku, this absence of luxury and decoration finds its philosophical and transcendental expression in Emanuel Swedenborg's (a Swedish philosopher who lived from 1688 until 1772) "Heaven and Hell" (paragraph 178); after he has described the garments of the angels, some of which glow with flame, some of which shine with light, he adds:

"But the angels of the inmost heaven are not clothed".

Well ... with the desciption of the moment I think you can revise that haiku ... so ... "break a leg", have fun, be inspired and share your revised Taigi-haiku with us at Caroe Diem Haiku Kai.

Flourishing Plum Flowers in the Moonlight

I have given it also a try, here is my 'revised' Taigi-haiku:

shadow on the wall
flourishing plum blossom
in the moon light

(c) Chèvrefeuille, your host

Not a bad revised Taigi-haiku I think, but that's not up to me to decide.

This first episode of Carpe Diem's Revise That Haiku will stay on 'till November 15th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will (try) to post a new episode of this new feature later on that day.
!! Revise That Haiku #1 is now open for your submissions !!

Carpe Diem Special #9, plum blossom

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

A new Carpe Diem Special, the last one for this month and also the last one with a haiku written by Issa. Our next haiku-master who will provides us with his haiku is Buson, also one of the four greatest haiku poets.

Today a haiku written by Issa on Pine Trees and Plum Blossom. I think this is an example of Issa's brilliance. Issa's brilliance is sometimes discussed, because there are several sources who state that Issa wasn't a haiku poet, but just a poet. I think however that Issa is for sure a haiku master and that he for sure can be mentioned in one breath with Basho, Buson and Shiki.

In Issa's haiku we can see, feel and read that he was a devotee of Buddha Amida, a sect of Buddhism.
This haiku I have chosen is (in my opinion) a masterpiece and in this masterpiece we can find Buddhism as Issa was devoted too.  

As we look closer to this haiku we see the strong pine tree rising to the sky, always green whole year through and the fragility of the plum blossom. In this is Buddhism ... eternity, but also transience. This haiku is balanced and the picture it paints is gorgeous.  

In this Issa humanized the plum blossom and suggests that it is resting on the roots of the pine tree on it's downward journey. The plum blossom will the food for the pine tree when completely decayed ... it becomes one with the pine tree. All is one ... a true Buddhist lesson.

Credits and Copyright: Pine Tree and Plum Blossom

matsu ga ne [ni] hito iki shite wa ume no hana

catching its breath
on the pine tree's root...
plum blossom

This haiku Issa wrote in 1805.

To write a new one inspired by this beauty of Issa will not be easy ... so good luck and have fun, be inspired and creative. Share your creativity with Carpe Diem.

My inspiration:

fragile plum blossom
struggles in the Spring Breeze -
petals fall in the mud  

even a pine tree
falls in love with the blooming plum -
just like humans

Well it was fun. I loved writing these haiku and this last Carpe Diem Special on Issa for you my dear Haijin, visitors and travelers.

This Special will stay on 'till November 30th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our last prompt for November first snow later on today around 10.00 PM (CET).