!! double episode !!
Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
During the holidays I will bring a few prompts together in one post, because this time of year is very dear to me and my family. We love to have time together and that makes that I have decided to bring another
"double episode" today. Of course you all are part my family of haiku loving people and I just had to make this episode for you all.
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On my way
to Yamanaka hot spring, the white peak of Mount Shirane overlooked me all the
time from behind. At last I came to the spot where there was a temple hard by a
mountain on the left. According to the legend, this temple was built to
enshrine Kannon, the great goddess of mercy, by the Emperor Kazan, when he had
finished his round of the so-called Thirty- three Sacred Temples, and its name
Nata was compounded of Nachi and Tanigumi, the first and last of these temples
respectively. There were beautiful rocks and old pines in the garden, and the
goddess was placed in a thatched house built on a rock. Indeed, the entire
place was filled with strange sights.
Stone
Mountain
whiter than its stones
autumn wind
© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)
I enjoyed a
bath in the hot spring whose marvelous properties had a reputation of being
second to none, except the hot spring of Ariake.
at Yamanaka
it’s not necessary to pluck chrysanthemums
hot spring fragrance
© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)
The host of
the inn was a young man named Kumenosuke. His father was a poet and there was
an interesting story about him: one day, when Teishitsu (later a famous poet in
Kyoto but a young man then) came to this place, he met this man and suffered a
terrible humiliation because of his ignorance of poetry, and so upon his return
to Kyoto, he became a student of Teitoku and never abandoned his studies in
poetry till he had established himself as an independent poet. It was generally
believed that Teishitsu gave instruction in poetry free of charge to anyone
from this village throughout his life. It must be admitted, however, that this
is already a story of long ago.
My
companion, Sora, was seized by an incurable pain in his stomach. So he decided
to hurry, all by himself, to his relatives in the village of Nagashima in the
province of Ise. As he said good-bye he wrote:
no matter
where I fall
I will be buried between
flowering bush-clovers
© Sora (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)
I felt
deeply in my heart both the sorrow of one that goes and the grief of one that
remains, just as a solitary bird separated from his flock in dark clouds, and
wrote in answer:
from this
day on
dew will erase the writing
on my hat
© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)
(Note:
Basho refers to “a party of two”, which he wrote on his hat as he and Sora
started their “Narrow Road”)
I stopped
overnight at the Zenshoji Temple near the castle of Daishoji, still in the
province of Kaga. Sora, too, had stayed here the night before and left behind a
poem.
Sora and I
were separated by the distance of a single night, but it was just the same as
being separated by a thousand miles. I, too, went to bed amidst the howling of
the autumn wind and woke up early the next morning amid the chanting of the
priests, which was soon followed by the noise of the gong calling us to
breakfast. As I was anxious to cross over to the province of Echizen in the
course of the day, I left the temple without lingering, but when I reached the
foot of the long approach to the temple, a young priest came running down the
steps with a brush and ink and asked me to leave a poem behind. As I happened
to notice some leaves of willow scattered in the garden, I wrote impromptu,
sweeping
the garden
I want to leave in the temple
scattered willow leaves
© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)
and left
the temple without even taking time to refasten my straw sandals.
Hiring a
boat at the port of Yoshizaki on the border of the province of Echizen, I went
to see the famous pine of Shiogoshi. The entire beauty of this place, I
thought, was best expressed in the following poem by Saigyo.
inviting
the wind to carry
salt waves of the sea,
the pine tree of Shiogoshi
trickles all night long
shiny drops of moonlight.
© Saigyo (Tr. Nobuyuki Yuasa)
Should
anyone ever dare to write another poem on this pine tree it would be like
trying to add a sixth finger to his hand.
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What a sad story. Basho and Sora have been on this journey so long together and now Basho has to say goodbye to his travel companion, because of illness. It's "double sad", because Basho wasn't healthy himself, he had a chronic diseases of the intestines. He once has said "I will die on one of my travels as a result of my illness", and now Sora had to leave him because of an illness.
How sad it is to look around you and see how people are alone or lonely without family or friends ... no one has to be alone with Christmas ... but ... well we all know that there are a lot people alone and lonely now. Let us think a while of them ... and than look at ourselves.
underneath the bridge
warming their hands at a fire basket
those ... lost and alone
© Chèvrefeuille
I hadn't planned to create a wonderful episode and leave you all with such a sad toned haiku ... but that's our reality, our world is lost and alone ... but there is a power, a great power, to overcome that ... unconditional love.
Merry Christmas
This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and it will remain open until December 28th at noon (CET). I will (try to) post our next episode, writing
something; the moon clear; harvest moon; loneliness, next Sunday.
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