It was in Basho's time (17th century) a traditional occupation of poets to wait for the first song of the 'hototogisu' in order to write a verse on the arrival of Summer. Basho also was such a poet. He always was close to the seasons and nature as in that time every haiku poet did. Haiku is also known as the poetry of nature. Every haiku had a season word to place it in the year. The use of season words is, in my opinion, not so much common in modern times. Because of changing industrial techniques, for example, Tulips are of Spring, but we can buy them already in Winter, so Tulips aren't especially for Spring in modern times. I myself love to use seasonal words, but it's not necessarely. I love the Classical haiku, but also the modern haiku. Basho wrote the upcoming haiku in 1666 and it was published in 1667 in the Anthology 'Zoku-Yamanio, compiled by Kashun and his father, Kikamura Kigin.
shibashi ma mo matsu ya hototogi - su sen nen
how long to wait for the cuckoo? some thousand years
In this haiku the longing for Summer is as clear as crystal. Basho is waiting on the first song of the cuckoo but becomes tired of waiting as the last sentence shows us, 'some thousand years' is an eternity, longer much longer than the lifetime of humankind.
In my haiku this 'longing' should be mentioned because I think that's the essential element in this haiku by Basho.
cherry blossoms fall - it feels like an eternity before Summer |
There are few things to be explicitly noticed in Basho's Haiku. There is No artifical "aha! moment". It is just a deep feeling spread over time and eternity!The classical Japanese don't self consciously discard the time element in haiku in favour of just spatial descriptions of a moment and pretend it is satori. They realize the spatial, sensual and time element are all important in a haiku. I hope modern Haijin-s too recognize this great enhancing possibility in their haiku as Chèvrefeuille has done here.
Let us not insist on nullifying the haiku to a present tense space. We can be much more generous and genuine with our great classical precursors!. Haiku is also an act of participation and not just a tentative dissociation!
This is not to deny the presence of Zen and other Buddhist aspirations and more primitive traditional animistic faiths rituals etc. too in haiku..
There is something subtle and meta-logical concealed in a good haiku. It thus makes a seamless metaphysical affirmation often, despite appearing to be a very ordinary and everyday experience.
Thank you Chèvrefeuille for bringing up some salient perspectives
More of this series you can read on my website:
http://chevrefeuilleshaikublog.blogspot.com/
Thanks for this opportunity to share my 'love' for Basho on Wonder Haiku Worlds.
Sincerely,