In crescent Moonlight . . .

-- Matsuo Bashô --

Summer haiku: # 785/786/793/
Spring haiku: # 780/778/
Winter haiku: # 765/
Autumn haiku: # 798.
_ _ _

In Maansikkellicht
ziet de grond er mistig uit
boekweitbloempjes wit.

In crescent Moonlight
the ground looks misty due to
buckwheat flowerets.


[白狐]

[MB785, summer, 1692.]
mikazuki ni / chi wa oboro nari / soba no hana.

"three-day-Moon // ground/earth (nom.) hazy/misty become //
buckwheat's flowers."
_ _ _

Jane: "For the third time Bashô's disciples had rebuilt his cottage near
its former site on the banks of the Fukagawa at the edge of Tôkyô.
At this time there weren't any banana trees around the cottage . . ."

A banana leaf
I want to hang on the post
Moon over my hut.


[白狐]

[MB786, summer, 1692.]
bashou-ba wo / hashira ni kake-n / io no tsuki.

"banana-leaf (acc.) [Bashô is a nom de plume: "Banana Tree".] //
to/on post/pillar hang-want-to // of-cottage/hut Moon."
_ _ _

Tanabata Festival [7th day of the 7th Moon-month]:

Thousand bush clover
stems on seven stumps will make
a starry autumn.

Duizend haagklaver
stengels op zeven stronken
een sterrenlichtherfst.


[白狐]

[MB793, summer, 1692.]
nána kabú no / hági no chí-motò ya / hoshí no áki.

"of/on seven stumps // of-bush-clover thousand-stems/roots
--/will-make // of-stars/starry autumn."
_ _ _

Jane: "Bashô included this verse in a letter to Kukû,
a hermit disciple in the precincts of a Buddhist temple."

I envy you, [Kukû]
a mountain cherry tree north
of the fleeting world.


[白狐]

[MB780, spring, 1692.]
urayamashi / ukiyo no kita no / yama-zakura.

"envious // fleeting-world's north's // mountain-cherry(-tree/blossoms)."
_ _ _

The flesh of the Japanese peach is white and the poet's daffodil,
not indigenous to Japan, has white petals and the bell's (b)rim
looks like a mouth with rouge on it >>
kuchi-beni-zuisen = mouth-rouge-daffodil/narcissus:

That strong scent from
a peach white like a poet's
daffodil flower.


[白狐]

[MB778, spring, 1692, a renga party for 12 poets.]
sono nioi / momo yori shiroshi / suisen-ka.

æ°´ä»™ sui-sen = water-hermit/water-wizard.
ä»™ character has a person next to a mountain.
仙人 sen-nin = mountain man > hermit.
-ka = hana = blossom; flower.

"that strong-scent // peach-from white // daffodil-flower.
[Jane translated "nioi" into "color": I guess she couldn't wrap her brains
around the concept of the white daffodil colour of a strong peach scent !!]
_ _ _

A winter seclusion haiku:

This winter life
and this withering wind
I'm sick of Kyôto !!


[白狐]

[MB765, winter, 1691.]
kyô ni akite / kono kogarashi ya / fuyu-zumai.

"by/of-Kyôto (getting-)tired // this withering-wind and // winter-life."
_ _ _

Probably about actual poets called Sodô and Senna:

Upstream and
this river downstream --
friends of the Moon.


[白狐]

[MB798, autumn, 1692, Edo/Tôkyô.]
kawa kami to / kono kawa shimo ya / tsuki no tomo.

"river up and / this river down -- / Moon's friend(s)."
_ _ _

Source: "Bashô - The Complete Haiku", translated by Jane Reichhold.

And many thanks to: http://tangorin.com/

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