Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge #85, "the ancient woman"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

It's Friday again and .... it's time again for a new episode of our special feature TRC (Tan Renga Challenge). We are on the trail with Basho and as you maybe know every TRC this month will be a haiku by Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), one of the five greatest haiku poets ever.
For those who are new here I will explain the goal of the TRC. In the Carpe Diem TRC I will give a haiku, the first stanza of the Tan Renga. A Tan Renga is a short chained poem written by two different poets and has two stanza. The first stanza (the hokku) counts three lines (approximately 5-7-5 syllables) and a two lined second stanza (the ageku) which counts approximately 7-7 syllables and is a continuation of the first stanza through association on the images in the first stanza.
The goal of the TRC is two write a second stanza towards the first, say a kind of "answer". For this week's TRC I have chosen a wonderful haiku by Basho which he wrote in his younger years. This haiku he wrote at the age of 21.

uba-zakura saku ya rogo no omoi ide

the ancient woman
cherry tree blooms in old age
an event to remember

© Basho (at the age of 21)

Credits: Cherry tree view

The cherry tree is thought be personified, but the verse could be simply a play of words on another name of the higan-zakura cherry tree, the uba - old woman or nanny, zakura = cherry tree. There is also the thought that to see a very old cherry tree covered with the youth of new blossoms looks like an old woman wearing an abundance of powder and rouge. Still, Basho's last line seems to take a kindly view - this is an event for the tree to remember and for the persons to remember. Some authorities see a connection between the first four words of the verse and a passage in the play "Sanemori" spoken by an aged samurai, "I am certain I will die in battle. No event in my old age will be more memorable than that". Others view the use of personification as an indication of the Teimon style, the dominant renga technique as Basho was learning.

What an awesome verse to start this Tan Renga with. Compose/write the second stanza of this Tan Renga through association on the images in the first stanza. For example, you can use the image of "the ancient woman" or the blooming cherry tree.

Here is my attempt to make this Tan Renga complete by adding the second stanza:

the ancient woman
cherry tree blooms in old age
an event to remember                (Basho)

like a young girl she stands
strong in the wind, the old sakura               (Chèvrefeuille)

I like this completion a lot ... how immodest ... (smiles) and now it's up to you, my dear Haijin, to complete this Tan Renga by adding your second stanza. Have fun!

This Tan Renga Challenge is open for your submissions at noon (CET) and will remain open until next Friday, May 22nd at noon (CET).

Carpe Diem #513 Basho (3), Winds of Autumn

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

We have had already two haiku of each of the 'big five', Basho, Chiyo-Ni, Buson, Issa and Shiki, and today we are going to start with our third 'round'. Today I have a rather controversial haiku for you by Matsuo Basho.
Basho was, and I think many of you didn't know that, homosexual and he loved younger guys. In his time it wasn't a secret (as it is still nowadays) that there were homosexual man, they were accepted as just a part of the community. Homosexuality is still not accepted in several countries, in some countries you can get the death-penalty if you are gay, but there are also a lot of countries in which homosexuality is accepted as just a kind of love between two humans as is heterosexuality.
I think a lot of you didn't know that Basho was homosexual, but in his time homosexuality was very common in the world of arts. In several of his haiku he writes about his homosexuality, sometimes in deeper layers and sometimes out in the open.
In the haiku for today he writes about his love for a guy. He not says it out in the open in this haiku, but in a deeper layer, in the meaning of the words he used.

Matsuo Basho

Basho's Winds of Autumn

In this CDHK episode, I love to share a haiku which wasn't included in Narrow Road, but was written while he was on his journey to the Deep North.

The haiku following now is a nice one and has also a reverence to his homosexuality. It's commonly known that Basho was a homosexual.

While Basho was staying at the Yamanaka Hot Springs, the 16 year old son of the innkeeper, Izumiya Matabel, attracted Basho's attention. He gave the young man the nom the plume Toyo (to = momo = peach) and (yo = the young beauty of). This name has a connection with Basho's earlier nom the plume "Tosei" (green peach) which forms a literary connection between the two, according to Oseka-san. However, other implications arise. Basho didn't choose to include the verse in his official travel journal but it was published in 1698, by Fukaku, a doctor in Kyoto, who made a book of 522 hokku classified into the season.

Credits: Peach Tree by Vincent Van Gogh

momo no ki no   sons ha chirasu na   aki no kaze

a peach tree
its leaves aren't scattered
winds of autumn

© Basho

When we look closely to this haiku we can see the young man to whom Basho was attracted, the peach tree, young, his leaves not scattered by the autumn wind. He is strong, this haiku glorifies the young man and his looks.

It's surely a wonderful haiku with a strong touch of love in it. Basho admires Toyo for his young beauty and maybe ... was in love with him.

But ... his love for Toyo isn't the important item in this haiku. It's the haiku which is important. It's a well balanced haiku and surely one in which Basho's master skills are very clear. I think this is one of his masterpieces.

It will be a challenge to write a new haiku for this episode of CDHK. Can I do that? Will I succeed? Let's give it a try.

Credits: Weeping Cherry Tree

a young cherry tree

this spring will be the first
to bloom for Buddha

© Chèvrefeuille

This was a tough one. It wasn't easy to write this one. It's for sure in the Spirit of Chèvrefeuille, but is it also in  Basho's Spirit? You, my dear visitor, may decide that.

I hope you all did like this episode and I hope it will inspire you to write/compose a whole new haiku. And of course I hope I didn't make you 'angry', because of the controversiality of this haiku. Usually I try to respect your boundaries and mine, but I also think "I can say all and everything here, if respectful.

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until July 15th at noon (CET). I will try to post our next episode, the third haiku by Chiyo-Ni, later on. For now ... have fun, be inspired and share your haiku with us all here at our Haiku Kai.