I’m enjoying reading Ueda’s Basho and His Interpreters, though at times it seems more like being immersed in a mini-class than casually reading a poetry book. The more I read, particularly the commentary, the more I realize how much I don’t know about Japanese literature and culture, though I am finding many new ideas to explore.

As I’ve noted in past commentary, I may enjoy haibunas much as I do haiku. One of my favorite haiku in this section seems much more effective to me when the “headnote” is included:

I arrived at my native town at the beginning of the ninth month. Nothing of my late mother remained there anymore. All had changed from what I remembered. My older brother, now with white hair in his side-locks and wrinkles around his eyebrows, could only say, “How lucky we are to meet alive again!” Then he opened a keepsake bag and said to me “Pay your respects to Mother’s white hair. They say the legendary Urashima’s hair turned white the instant he opened the souvenir box he had brought back from the Dragon Palace. Now your eyebrows look a little white, too.” We wept together for some time.

should I hold it in my hand
it would melt in my hot tears-
autumn frost

te / nil toraba / kien / namida / zo / atsuki / aki / no / shimo
hand / in / if-take / will-vanish / tear / ! / hot / autumn / ’s / frost

NOTE
Written in Ueno on October 16. Urashima was the young hero of a legend who visited a Dragon Lady’s palace under the sea. Returning to his native village and finding nothing there that he could remember, he disobeyed the lady’s order and opened a jewel box she had given him. Instantly he turned into an old man.

COMMENTARY

The comparison here is between frost and white hair. The word “hot” connotes an infinitely deep sorrow, while the words “would melt” -kien–have a sonorous sound. -Tosai

The poet is saying he cannot take the white hair in his hand because if he were to do so his hot tears would melt it away like autumn frost. In brief, this is a hok1 that depends far too much on a logical connection of ideas. In addition, it still retains something of the old style that characterized Minashiguri. I do not find it poetically appealing. - Meisetsu

An excellent poem which, without any verbal adornment, fully reveals the poets honest, sincere personality. -Kobayashi

The poet just could not contain his grief. -Ebara

The poem’s central metaphor-that of autumn frost-is a failure. In particular, the statement that the frost would melt in hot tears sounds hollow and unconvincing. We can visualize the grieving poet, but the poem does not convey the grief in a manner that moves the heart. - Shüson

I think it can safely be said that few other poems make us so sublimely conscious that nature and humanity are one. -Komiya

The underlying emotionality of the poem is manifest in the wave-like rhythm of the verse. However, if we read the hokku independently of the headnote, we get the impression that the wording of the poem does not do justice to the intensity 0f the poet’s emotion. A poem of this kind needs to be read with its headnote to be fully appreciated. -Iwata

While the haiku may be able to stand on its own, I agree wholeheartedly with what Iwata says in the last comment. With the headnote it reminds me of one of Thoreau’s essays which he concludes with a powerful aphorism. I suppose you could even consider it a unique type of prose poem.

We woke to snow-dusted cars and heavy clouds again yesterday. But just before noon, the clouds miraculously cleared, and the sun suddenly appeared. I knew there wasn’t time to actually drive anywhere, since the sun would probably have disappeared before I could get there.

So I simply drove the short distance to Owen Beach to get pictures. There weren’t a lot of birds, certainly not a one I haven’t gotten shots of before, but I’d be a fool to complain about walking the beach on a sunny, crisp winter day.

This Horned Grebe in its non-breeding colors was the first grebe I spotted.

Later I spotted a larger Red-Necked Grebe, also in non-breeding colors, further out.

But the best shot of the day was of this pair of Common Goldeneye.

The day was only slightly marred by my brief encounter with a coast guard craft that was passing by but swung about and came over and “questioned me,” at least that’s the way the lady walking on the shore and I interpreted their actions.

Hey, I wasn’t even wearing my usual camouflage jacket, just carrying my Canon 400mm lens. They were actually quite pleasant, though the sight of the .762 machine gun mounted on the front of the boat and the flashing blue lights proved slightly unnerving. Apparently birding is more subversive than I was originally led to believe.

I would have liked to get a picture of the boat but decided I wouldn’t push my luck by training my camera on their boat as they left.

Things are slowly returning to “normal” around here. I’ve managed to take Skye out for his walk two days in a row, and I’ve even managed to find some time to start reading poetry again. I’ve had Basho and His Interpreters: Selected Hokku with Commentary by Makoto Ueda lying around for quite awhile, since, as I remember it, Jonathon Delacour suggested it was the best version of Basho out.

If you’ve come here for awhile you’ll remember that Chinese and Japanese poetry are favorites, though I’ve only had one college course that centered on them. In fact, most of my interest has arisen since I’ve retired. I’ll continue to include them under the heading “Haiku and Beyond” because I still don’t feel comfortable discussing them in the same depth I discuss English-speaking poets.

One of the reasons I’m particularly fond of this translation is that Ueda includes his translation, a Japanese translation directly under that, and a word-by-word translation after that. He follows that with what he considers significant commentary on each of the hokku. Occasionally, I even find that my initial interpretation of the poem matches at least one of the commentaries.

a fool in the dark
grabs a bramble-
firefly hunt

go / ni / kuraku / ibara / wo / tsukamu / horatu / kana
folly / in / dark / bramble / [acc.] / grab / firefly / kana

NOTE

Kuraku, as is the English word dark,” can mean either physical or metaphorical darkness.

COMMENTARY

Unable to see in the darkness of night and absorbed in an exciting firefly hint, a man accidentally grabbed a bramble. Reading this hokku, we should remind ourselves of those pleasures that will do us harm if we are too absorbed in them. - Duuto

This hokku seems to satirize a person who falls into an error because of his own greed. -Tosai

The poet saw a firefly that had settled not on a soft blade of grass but on a thorny bramble. Thereupon he speculated that the firefly muse be none too brilliant during daylight hours, although at nighttime it flits about freely by its own light. That, I think, is what the poet meant by the hokku’s opening phrase. - Komiya

The meaning of the poem centers on the loss of judgment suffered by is person who was too intent on catching a firefly. The lesson can be applied to life in general. The poem utilizes an allegorical device borrowed from Chuang-tzu, a device that was central to the art of the Danrin school. -Shuaon

An allegorical poem on the folly of a person who is too preoccupied with one thing to reflect on other things. Probably self-derision. - Kou

Though he didn’t do so in this example, Ueda also consistently points out lines in the hokku that reference poetry or literature that preceded Basho’s hokku. It’s clear Western readers of hokku miss much in these poems because they don’t have the literary background to pick up on such subtle references. On the other hand, the poems reveal Basho’s genius because they are able to stand on their own. Even without a literary background, the best of these poems create a moment that reveals its own eternal truth.

The weather has, to say the very least, been quite unusual here in the Pacific Northwest the last week and a half, but I’m beginning to lose patience with UPS. I was even okay with packages not arriving by Christmas day.

However, roads have been cleared here since Christmas day, the Post Office managed to deliver the mail every single day, without exception. Still no sign of a UPS truck here, despite the fact that they’re normally up our road twice a day, and sometimes more often.

Here’s the the latestest shipping details from one package from Amazon’s web site:

Status: Shipment Delayed

December 26, 2008 04:03:00 AM FIFE WA US
Arrival Scan
December 23, 2008 09:59:00 PM FIFE WA US
Problem resolved and shipment is in transit
December 22, 2008 08:45:00 PM FIFE WA US
Arrival Scan
December 22, 2008 09:06:00 AM FIFE WA US
Arrival Scan
December 22, 2008 09:00:00 AM FIFE WA US
Arrival Scan
December 20, 2008 01:55:00 AM SEATTLE WA US
Departure Scan
December 19, 2008 09:42:00 PM SEATTLE WA US
Arrival Scan
December 19, 2008 08:49:00 PM REDMOND WA US
Departure Scan
December 19, 2008 03:39:00 PM REDMOND WA US
Arrival Scan
December 19, 2008 11:21:00 AM PORTLAND OR US
Departure Scan
December 19, 2008 05:00:00 AM REDMOND WA US
Delay in delivery due to weather or natural disaster
December 18, 2008 11:07:00 PM PORTLAND OR US
Arrival Scan
December 18, 2008 06:30:00 PM ROSEBURG OR US
Departure Scan
December 18, 2008 05:37:00 PM ROSEBURG OR US
Arrival Scan
December 18, 2008 03:50:00 AM SPARKS NV US
Departure Scan
December 17, 2008 08:21:00 PM SPARKS NV US
Shipment received by carrier
December 17, 2008 07:25:21 PM US
Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit

Apparently the thinking must be that if they’ve already missed the 2nd Day promised delivery that they can be as late as they want to be. Strangely enough, I don’t find that acceptable business practice. So unacceptable, that I won’t be buying any more Christmas presents from Amazon unless they offer some different delivery options.

It seems at the very least that UPS should have made it possible to pick up packages at their facility in Fife. I’m not sure whether it was UPS or FEDEX, but if you missed a home delivery you could call and pick the package up at their facility the next day, the same as you can do at the post office.

UPDATE. Well, the squeaky wheel must get oiled, because my packages came sometime after 5:45 tonight because they were on the front porch when we returned from dinner tonight. However, Leslie’s presents, originally due the 19th still haven’t shown up. I guess that’s what happens when you wait until the last minute to order gifts. :-0