Haiku - Watch those Suffixes

HAIKU _ WATCH THOSE SUFFIXES 

 #Haiku #japanese #translations #suffixes #Basho 

I was looking for seasonal haiku for November. Momiji was a kigo.

This haiku by Basho that takes a common phrase and gives it a new resonance.

Tootogaru 

Namida ya somete

Chiru momiji 

literally revering as a feeling not a honorific note that garu suffix

tear(s) emphasis marker color stain dyeing somete from someru 

scattering falling maple and other red autumn leaves late in the season 

Seems simple right yet two other translations I saw of this haiku ignore tootogaru being a verb and the translators seem to have thought he was refering to the Buddhist priest he was visiting.

Tootogaru is a verb!

Referring to an emotion shared about something or some action.

Yes there may be a pun on the stem being an honorific used especially in its Sino-Japanese as part of titles. 

But note Basho has used the KUN reading and added a suffix that turns verbs and adjectives into verbs!

So how to turn the first line being one verb into a phrase in English that also expresses the feeling?

With reverence ? Revering? Respect? Add we view ?

And whose tears are coloring the fallen leaves ?

See how those two first lines change a standard phrase used with other haiku and waka !

 Our reverent tears are coloring the falling leaves isn't a poem in English but expresses the meaning and context and gets closer but not close enough to the Japanese meaning? Or not ? 

One suffix -garu changes the whole haiku! 

RAIN ON AZALEAS

 #Densutejo #sutejo #haiku #azaleas #rain 

RAIN ON AZALEAS

Den Sutejo 1633 - 1698 was a woman haiku poet who was a student of Basho 

 A follower of Pure Land and later Zen Buddhism under Bankei she eventually set up a small nunnery for women.

Nure iro ya

Ame no shita teru 

Himotsutsuji 

wet color ! rain from down / under shining  / princess azalea 

Nure from nuru to paint or coat  Iro - color 

A search for princess azaleas brings up the name of several modern varieties that could quite possibly be hybrids or cultivars from whatever type of japanese azalea is being referred to ?

When you think probably of rain drops on azaleas shining and dripping bear in mind even princesses did not wear much in the way of jewellery and its possible Sutejo is not thinking of beads  but perhaps some expensive imported "watered" silk or satin or brocade over robe and the pattern the rain drops are forming on azaleas both flowers and foliage ? 

Cherry Blossoms are a lesson

#densutejo #haiku #sakura #japanesepoetry

HANA WA YO NO

TAMESHI NI SAKU YA

HITOSAKARI 

Den Sutejo

Flowers for this world 

a lesson their blossoming

Brief prosperity

The translation is mine

(copyright J.Vaux 2022)

Hana is flowers and usually in haiku cherry blossom sakura

Yo here is world not leave

I take the no as being for not of in English 

It can function as both in Japanese

Tameshi can mean example precedent experience test trial 

Saku the verb to blossom 

I think an example being a lesson works best in English due to the final line.

Hitosakari hito plus sakari is one of those words that could be translated by a whole sentence! Something that prospers flourishes is at its best just once or for a brief time.

Sakari is probably from the verb sakaru rather than saku.

This seems to be a choice invoking the word sakura without actually using it?

One translator has this as temporary prosperity but I hope brief is allowable and its usage along with lesson actually enabled me to have it be meaningful in English and follow the 5 - 7 - 5 format of Japanese!

Another chiru momiji Haiku

 Another Chiru Momiji Haiku 

by SHIKO Kagami

#haiku #shiko #chirumomiji #translation 

Urayamashii

utsukushuu natte

chiru momiji 

Enviable note - mashii  its the adjective not the verb urayamu 

beauty beautiful this form equals modern utsukushii 

natte is becomes apparently there are texts that record this line as ending with narite instead

the general idea though is beauty changing 

chiru momiji is the scattering and falling of autumn leaves maples or others

Enviable the beautiful becoming falling leaves 

This sort of haiku shows why haiku translations and waka too always need notes on the original and at least the romaji of the original !

Buson - Poem Card -The sea at Spring

 #Harunoumi #Buson #haiku 

This was posted to my #patreon  JVartndesign in 2019 but no one claimed it as an reward. It will still be available as  apost card or download when I decide to move it to my Red Bubble or DeviantArt or both. My rule is anything thats be up for longer than a six months or a year gets deleted since I figure no one is going to scroll down that far!

Its a haiku by Buson Note that for the repeated verb notari the tari part is a suffix !

Hagi no hana Waka

From the Man'yo shu MYS X:223

*hagi #waka #manyoshu

Hagi no hana            hagi flowers 

sakitaru nobe ni           blooming continously spreading   

Higurashi no                   while higurashi cicadas 

Naku naru naheni                are singing together with 

Aki no kaze fuku          the wind of autumn blowing 

word for word hagi = bush clover of flowers verb saku = taru suffix nobe spreading extending higurahi a kind of cicada that sings early morning or evening or when its overcast and cloudy
naku sing naru being naheni adverb aki autumn kaze wind fuku verb again

Basho's ume ga ka ni ...

#Basho #haiku #ume

One of Basho's final haiku is the opening poem in a short renga done with his student Shida Yaba


Ume ga ka ni 

Noto hi no deru 

Yamaji kana 

I translate this as The fragrance of plum blossom Suddenly the sun rising On a Mountain path

Word for word in Japanese its plum fragrance at on place time marker suddenly sun of the rising (on) a mountain path.

Seems almost too simple

Ume can grow at quite high altitudes and think about the sequence of images

the fragrance of plums not the sight of pale flowers then suddenly the sun rising on a mountain path

the path winding up slope  through or past plum trees in the pre dawn gloaming barely visible invisible maybe and then the sunlight reaches the path ...

This haiku will be one of the themes for works shared on Patreon and DeviantArt  and other social media this month

Haiga coming soon!

... oh some thing else special about this month it can be written and read entirely with kana.

MA YUAN and the Lonely Fisherman

probably one of the best  if not the best known painting on the Lonely Fisherman Theme is this one by #MaYuan

This Song dynasty painting was probably inspired by this poem by Liu Zong Yuan a Tang dynasty writer noted for both poetry and prose who wrote "River Snow"

This is a very loose translation

Over a thousand mountains the flight of birds has ceased
On ten thousand pathways human tracks have disappeared
In just one boat in a reed cloak and bamboo hat an old man
Alone he continues fishing on the cold river in the snow.

Ma Yuan fisherman is not in the snow and his hat and cape are piled neatly onto of his boat but the general mood is similar ... one man alone ...

Some critics think Liu's poem refers to himself but I wonder also if he saw from a riverbank one fisherman so desperate for a catch they worked even as snow begun and continued to fall?

I have some more Fisherman paintings to show you

Do consider following ! ?

LIU ZONG YUAN the OLD fisherman

#lizongyuan #chinese poetry #oldfisherman

The painting I showed you in the last post was an illustration probably of this famous poem.

Beware there is another famous poem with only four lines about a fisherman by this writer who was also noted for his prose essays.

Here are my notes and VERY ROUGH translation VERY ROUGH

I'm hoping for feedback so I can finish it.

THE OLD FISHERMAN

yu weng ye bang xi yan su
fishing elder night side west cliff spends night

West Cliff may be a place name not just a description
Whether the fishing elder was Liu Zong Yuan himslef or a different person I leave you to decide!

xiao ji qing xiang ran chu zhu

first light draws water clear Xiang lights fire CHU bamboo
Most translations just say river and don't mention its the Xiang River
Chu bamboo was he cooking with dry bamboo using a bamboo steamer or what ?
Chu is the name of an independent realm predating the unification covering the area Liu Zong Yuan was travelling thru so is CHU bamboo actually a cooking style or what?

Note the U final rhyme scheme
(then) yan xiao then into the mists disappears (as) sun rises not see man

ai nai yi sheng shan shui cui

alas regret literary form of verb to be or an adverb ? one sound landscape green
there is no mention in the original text of an oar so what is the sound ?

turn see sky edge down stream mid current

cliff above not have heart/mind cloud(s) each other one by one moving

so just as the river flows on so do the clouds above in the sky

Lets tidy that up

The old fisherman for the night moors beside West Cliff

At daybreak draws clear water from the Xiang cooks with Chu bamboo

Into the mists he disappears when the sun rises
or the mists disappear when the sun rises I no longer see the man ?

again who is making the one sound ? the poet or the fisherman ?

sighing make one sound at the verdant landscape

turning I look at the skys edge down mid current

above the cliffs mindlessly the clouds follow each other

Comments invited

Chiyo's Cicadas

#Chiyo #haiku #translation #cicadas #japanesepoetry

Taki no ne mo hosoru ya mine ni semi no koe 

sound of waterfall 
tapering off ! peak(s) location 
 voice of cicada 

the sound of water falling from or near a peak tapering off becoming less or is the waterfalls sound making the cicadas voice less?

Cicadas vary the volume of their chorus 

I don't how Japanese cicada behave 

I have this picture in my mind of Chiyo walking through a forest or trees full of cicadas and suddenly coming to a pool where water is falling noisily down the peaks and maybe sitting besides it to write this haiku after meditating or simply resting on a long walk to visit a Buddhist temple.

The sound of the waterfall 
lessening amongst the peaks 
The voice of the cicadas

amongst is too strong a translation of ni but works in English

I'm not sure of the best reading of mo here... and so though ?
hosoru should be thinning like a thread being spun but thinning doesnt work in modern English or Japanese where few people spin their own thread?

The voice of the cicadas however is just as strong !

Cicadas - a Waka

This poem about #cicadas is from a sequence of #waka written by #MinamotoNoAkinaka (1064-1135)

Yamakawa no 
Iwa kosu nami ni 
Uchisoete 
Tani hibiku nari 
Semi no morogoe 

mountain yama river kawa  of no

reef  iwa as jagged peaks of rocks sticking up thru waves nami  in a rapid kosu straining or crossing over ni - locative

uchi intensifier prefix "VERY" little / great soete sou following accompanying running along

tani valley hibiku  echo sound nari verb to be archaic

semi - cicada no - of morogoe compound noun moro together goe voice  voices sounds in unison

My notes I hope show why learning even just a little bungo deepens one's appreciation of waka.

Translated directly one loses most of the assonance  ?

I will try though to give you something not too prosaic !

in a mountain valley
waves break over rapids 
following so closely 
 the valley fills with echos of both 
the chorus of cicadas 

Ikutsura WTF? HELP with Bungo Needed!

#rengetsu #waka #translation #bungo

I'm stuck! I have gone over this several times and I can't get it to make sense in Japanese or English.

So here's my notes so far

Maybe some one with a better grasp of bungo can help?

The text I had access to gave the romaji and kana and no kanji except for koe - voice.

Ikutsura ka / Yukue mo mie zu / yuugasumi / ne taku mo kari / koe bakari shi

the first line could be iku+tsura and if so means how many of a group in a nearby area

but if its ikutsu+ ra then groups travelling stretched out in a row

Yukue going traveling in one direction  but mie could mean in triple rows or seeing?
and zu can't be a negative suffix here but seems to be an emotive particle /adverb ?

Yuugasumi is easy evening mists !

ne root wish desire + taku  burning / despite burning because of seeing kari - geese
or is it wish (for) home cause geese  is taku a noun or verb .... with no kanji given ...

koe bakari shi voice only shi for extra emphasis of bakari

I'm really stuck on the possible double readings of the kana !

Ideas anyone

How would you read this Rengetsu waka ?

Particularly Ikutsura and ne followed by taku ?!

Birds at a Shrine

#shiki wrote a #haiku depicting #birds at a #shinto #shrine that can be read two ways

mi+yashiro ya
niwa hi ni tooki
ukine dori

depending on whether you read niwa and hi as one word or two
this reads

 prefix honorable shrine shinto

garden/yard/enclosed space light / fire being at distance tooki is a verb! toku !
floating - sleeping implied birds ukine = sleeping in a ship or floating object or uneasy sleep

Why are the birds sleeping in the shadows so far away from the light?

They should be safe on the grounds of a shrine?

I thought they were simply avoiding being disturbed and that Shiki was creating a word picture of birds barely visible but recently I found niwahi can also mean bonfire so there's a note of anxiety and sympathy ... the birds have perhaps moved as far as they can across a pond away from the noise of humans celebrating some kind of fire ritual?

Poor birds!

Cicadas and Chiyo

#haiku #chiyo #summer #cicadas

Its mid summer where I am and we have cicadas in Australia.

CHIYO

Taki no ne mo / hosoru ya mine ni / semi no koe 

waterfall of sound despite stretching thin (voice like thread) mountains at cicadas of voice

Let's change that into something that sounds and reads a bit more "poetic" in English

Despite the roar of the waterfall 
Spreading thinly around the peaks
The voice of the cicadas

Despite is perhaps a rather generous interpretation of mo but it works

Cicadas in Japan allegedly like rock crevices as much as they prefer trees in Sydney.
Chiyo uses peaks mine instead of yama. Perhaps she was visiting the Hakusan Mountains South and South East of Matto City ?

I will have more technozi for you over the Christmas but there will be some bumping of old posts.

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ISSA and SUMIRE

#Issa #sumire #haiku

TWO HAIKU ABOUT SUMIRE BY ISSA

Sumire saku / kado ya yoru sae / natsukashiki

Violet bloom gate ! night yearning longing sae = clear at least serene ? natsukashiki yearn long for as adjective

Violets blooming serenely by the gate at night I yearn to see 

Or possilbly its late twilight and hes pleased to reach his destination ?

Waga mae ni / dare dare sumi shi / sumire zo mo

I before this time place who who live indeed violets emphatic also still here


Before me  who indeed lived here the violets still remain 


December theme will be Summer and Heat !
With a few Wintery things thrown in for contrast!

Naku Shika No

#autumn #waka #sarumaru #heian #japanese #poetry

Oku yama ni 

Momiji fumi wake 

Naku shika no 

Koe kiku toki

Aki wa kanashiki 

This is one of the earliest poems to use the deer's cry phrase.

I translate this as

Deep in the mountains

oku+yama+ni
not mountainside as some do

Momiji is maple leaves but I suspect fumiwake is one long compound verbal and the romaji should be rendered as one word however to translate accurately
its fumu+wakeru
is the poet trampling on leaves or pushing through a pile of them?
note that wake can mean dividing so I choose

Pushing through maple leaves

Naku shika no the cry of the deer(s)

Koe kiku toki

sound works time the sound works on effects or maybe hear time

Aki autumn wa subject marker

kanashiki is Bungo modern form is kanashii sad mournful pathetic

Deep in the mountains
Pushing through maple leaves
(I hear) the cry of the deer
A sound making autumn mournful

Yes its four lines not five but it makes the translation a poem in English and not just a paraphrase?

SHIKI ON SUMMER

#shiki #haiku #summer

SHIKI Masaoka

A HAIKU about SUMMER

#Hiragana #Romaji

くんぶぅゃ Kumpū ya!

せんざんのみどり Senzan no midori

てらひとっ Tera hitotsu

Kumpū also written kunpū

Kun 薰 Fragrance + Fu 風 Wind Breeze

Sen 1000 Zan is San Mountain of greem midori

Tera buddhist temple hitotsu one single

Fragrant Breeze !

Amidst a thousand green mountains

A single temple.

He must have been somewhere very remote for there to have been just one small temple and not a whole complex given the fondness of the Japanese for building temples and shrines atop mountains.

Fragrant breeze is a KIGO for summer or late spring so while I've seen one translator suggest pines for the source many trees flower in summer.

Perhaps a remote valley too small to be worth farming but just enough room for a shrine and trees?