Posted by Chèvrefeuille Wed, Jan 4th 2012, 23:34 :: English
As a haiku poet you can only write for someone if being asked. It's an unwritten haiku law that a haiku poet never writes a haiku for a person, when not asked to. Basho did write haiku for people but only when they asked him. The next haiku he wrote for a woman named Butterfly when she asked him to write a haiku for her with her name in it. This event occured in a teahouse somewhere in Edo. ran no ka ya cho no tusubasa ni takimono su orchid fragrance from the butterfly's wings scenting the clothes
It is a beautiful haiku, very fragile and pure as there are more by Basho. In this one the haiku master is seen. Basho wrote this haiku in the Spring of 1684. The seasonword in this one is butterfly. So the name of the woman gives the season for this haiku.
I once wrote a haiku for friend when she asked me for it. This was the one I wrote for her: newborn child inbetween coloured leaves Ah! that perfume
This friend of mine used it for the birth announcement of her first born. I think this is in the same sense of the one by Basho.