According to the Buddha, there are two worlds, the internal world and external world. 世間, Seken, literally the World, Society, as opposed to the individual. Bashō no yōna, the author of this blog, and modern day Basho disciple, says this:Īt the Old School House in Kechi Notes on Translationīefore becoming Basho, Matsuo Basho took the pen name Tosei, 桃青, meaning “green peach” inferring that he was not quite ripe. Lucy runs inside and shakes off the rain. The three of us sit on the patio under trees strung with lights, sample the beers, listen to music, and forget our worrries. He is accompanied by his wife and dog, Lucy, a small dog, a mix, mostly Blue Heeler. The author of this blog takes a trip to Kechi, a small Kansas town outside Wichita. It is early September the summer’s heat has given way to cooler days and nights. It is another rainy day in Middle America. Today, in 2021, pubs and micro-breweries have become the gathering place for friends and couples who want to talk about the day’s events, about the World. More than three centuries have gone by since Matsuo Basho wrote his haiku. Perhaps it heightens the surreal quality of the plays. That is yet to come when, two autumns later, Matsuo Basho would take the somewhat surprising step of leaving Edo and crossing the Sumida River to Fukagawa to live in a cottage beside a Banana plant, 芭蕉.įor now, Basho enjoys Kabuki Theater. He has not yet become Bashō, 芭蕉, the poet who compares himself to the fragile and useless Banana plant.
Sakai-cho, Edo’s Kabuki Theater District, Utagawa Hiroshige Leaving Edo It is a kigo for winter, and a metaphor for shedding tears.Įdo, Autumn, 1678, Matsuo Basho, then called Tosei, age 35.Īme no hi / ya seken no aki o / sakai-chōĪ rainy day, in Autumn the world awakens in Sakai-cho Shigureyo しぐれよ, the imperative verb form for rain, literally, let it rain.
The rat-a-tat-tat of the sleet on the roof and the freezing weather creating an atmosphere of pure wabi, Buddhist term to express an emotion of subdued austere beauty. The poets who have gathered for a renga are sitting and shivering in silence, immersed in the beautiful world of haiku. To each of us at the inn, let it rain, even if it’s cold. I have reversed the word order in Basho’s haiku and turned down the thermometer to bitterly cold. Hitobito wo/ Shigureyo yado wa/ Samuku tomo Matsuo Basho, Winter, 1689 Notes on Translation A poetry performance ( renga) was held at a tea house near the castle in Iga-Ueno where Basho was once a servant. On the completion of his trip to the northern interior of Japan which was to become the famous travelogue Oku no Hosomichi, Matsuo Basho took time to visit with friends and take a side journey to visit his birthplace in Ise Province. Let it sleet, let us freeze, … friends forever!
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