Friday, January 12, 2018

Basho: some winter haiku

Some winter haiku by Basho.  While it seldom, if ever, gets this cold in Tucson, I grew up in Chicago, and I remember those wintry days and nights, especially those in February. 



the sound of the water jar
    cracking on this icy night
            as I lay awake
                 -- Basho --


the winter garden--
thinning to a thread, the moon
       and an insect's singing
                     -- Basho --


a wintry gust--
cheeks painfully swollen,
      the face of a man
                 -- Basho --

The haiku above are taken from Winter: A Spiritual Biography of the Season,  edited by Gary Schmidt and Susan M. Felch.




"21

a winter shower
the pine tree is unhappy and
waiting for snow

  -- Basho --
from Basho: The Complete Haiku

8 comments:

  1. Thanks for this. It is some great Haiku. I live on Long Island New York and we have had a long stretch of near zero Fahrenheit temperatures. I am feeling the winter!

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    1. Brian Joseph, we've been lucky so far in Tucson--mostly 70s and 40s so far.

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  2. wonderfully evocative... the second did it for me: i feel the singing wind biting my cheek and the cold exploring my fingers...

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    1. Mudpuddle, yes, it's the wind that does it for me also.

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  3. Brrrr! I can relate to the sound of ice breaking in the first one. Not while I was sleeping though - I'd be buried under too many covers and the sound would be muted. But from going out with my grandpa to break the ice on the water tank for the cows.

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    1. madamevauquer, I doubt if I would have heard it either. It's the wind that most reminds me of winter.

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  4. Finding beauty in the death of winter challenges me.
    Thanks for sharing a few beautiful words.

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    1. R.T., I think it would be difficult to find beauty in winter in an urban setting--aside, maybe, from the first morning of a overnight snowfall.

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