Bashō

Bashō

(Basho has tremendous respect in my heart. He is not only a mystic, a master, he is also a poet, a painter, a sculptor; he is a creative phenomenon. Nobody can compare with him as far as his multidimensional personality is concerned. – OSHO - The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha)

Matsuo Bashō (1644 – November 28, 1694), was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized as the greatest master of haiku. His poetry is internationally renowned, and in Japan many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Bashō was introduced to poetry at a young age, and he quickly became well known throughout Japan. He made a living as a teacher, but renounced the social, urban life of the literary circles and was inclined to wander throughout the country, heading west, east, and far into the northern wilderness to gain inspiration for his writing. His poems were influenced by his firsthand experience of the world around him.

 

Listed below are some of his Haikus. Explanation of two are given, others are left to you..

An Old Pond

old pond.....
a frog leaps in
water's sound 

 (May be one Meaning :  Old Pond is Bashô's most famous poem. The speaker of this haikai is a person sitting by an old pond listening to the sound the water makes as a frog jumps in. An old pond is usually a quiet place where one can relax without the worry of much sound. By saying it is an "old pond" in line one, Bashô suggests that the water is completely still to begin with, and that the frog leaping in causes the speaker to focus on the sudden splash. In line two, Bashô states that "a frog jumps in". A frog in Japan is a symbol of the spring, so by this he indicates the approximate time of year. Line three, "the sound of water", indirectly implies a surrounding silence simply because the speaker is able to hear the sound clearly. This obviously indicates that there is hardly any noise in the background.)

As they begin to rise again

As they begin to rise again
Chrysanthemums faintly smell,
After the flooding rain 

(Chrysanthemum is one of the most widely cultivated flowers in the world. The popularity of these flowers have reached such a height, that chrysanthemums have now gone to become the undisputed "Queen of the Fall Flowers". It has taken centuries of careful breeding by the gardeners and flower lovers to come up with the wide range of floral colors, shapes and sizes. These days chrysanthemum flowers are available in various shades of pink, red, purple, yellow, orange, bronze and white. The word chrysanthemum comes from Greek, where it means golden flower. In Japan, chrysanthemum has been regarded as a 'solar flower'. As a matter of fact, the Japanese Imperial family has adopted it as their emblem and Seal of the Japanese Emperor himself. It has been depicted in various cultures as a symbol of perfection.)

Meaning of others you make out as you may feel …..

Select few Haikus of Basho

A field of cotton

A field of cotton--                  
as if the moon

had flowered.

Crossing long fields

Crossing long fields,
frozen in its saddle,
my shadow creeps by 

Even that old horse

Even that old horse
is something to see this
snow-covered morning 

First day of spring

First day of spring--
I keep thinking about
the end of autumn.

Flower

Flower
under harvest sun - stranger
To bird, butterfly. 

From time to time

From time to time
The clouds give rest
To the moon beholders.. 

But for a woodpecker

But for a woodpecker
tapping at a post, no sound
at all in the house 

Cold as it was

Cold as it was
We felt secure sleeping together
In the same room. 

First winter rain

First winter rain--
even the monkey
seems to want a raincoat.

Deep into autumn

Deep into autumn
and this caterpillar
still not a butterfly 

Chilling autumn rains 

Chilling autumn rains
curtain Mount Fuji, then make it
more beautiful to see 

Cold night: the wild duck

Cold night: the wild duck,
sick, falls from the sky
and sleeps awhile.

Coolness of the melons

Coolness of the melons
flecked with mud
in the morning dew.

From time to time

From time to time
The clouds give rest
To the moon beholders.. 

Matsuo Basho

Haiku

scent of plum blossoms
on the misty mountain path
a big rising sun 

Matsuo Basho

How admirable

How admirable!
to see lightning and not think
life is fleeting.


Translated by Robert Hass 

(Basho is the greatest haiku poet of Japan, the Master haiku poet. But he was not just a poet. Before becoming a poet he was a mystic; before he starting pouring out with beautiful poetry, he poured deep into his own center. He was a meditator.
- OSHO -The Beloved)

 

Find the extraordinary in the ordinary

Japanese poem haiku is the smallest poetry form in the world - 17 syllables only - but one of the most penetrating. The word haiku means 'the beginning'.

This has tremendous significance. The haiku poets say: We only begin, we never end. The poet begins, the listener has to complete it.

If a poem is complete with the poet then nothing is left for the listener who will remain a mere spectator. Then the act is not creative.

The real poet never completes. He leaves something incomplete. He hints and leaves gaps: you have to fill them. Then the transfer is creative.

The poet sings a song, ripples are created in your consciousness, and you complete the song in your innermost core of being. Then you are joined in one creative process.

Basho was a mystic poet who has written amazing Haikus: "When I look carefully, I see the nazunia (ablooming By the hedge!" Now, this might not seem like great poetry.

Let's go into it with more sympathy, because Basho is being translated; in his own language it has a totally different texture and flavor.

The nazunia is a very common flower. It grows by itself by the side of the road, a grass flower. It is so common that nobody ever looks at it. It is not a precious rose, it is not a rare lotus.

It is easy to see the beauty of a rare lotus floating on a lake. Or a beautiful rose dancing in the wind, in the sun. It is stunning. But a nazunia is a very ordinary, common flower; it needs no gardening; it grows by itself anywhere.

To see a nazunia carefully a meditator is needed, a delicate consciousness is needed; otherwise you will bypass it. It has no apparent beauty.

Its beauty is that of the very ordinary, but the very ordinary contains the extra-ordinary in it, because all is full of the divine - even the nazunia flower. Unless you penetrate it with a sympathetic heart you will miss it.

In Basho's poem the last syllable - 'kana' in Japanese - is translated by an exclamation mark because we don't have any other way to translate it.

Kana means, "I am amazed!" Now, from where is the beauty coming? Is it coming from the nazunia? Thousands of people may have passed by the hedge and nobody may have even looked at this small flower.

And Basho is possessed by its beauty, is transported into another world. What has happened? It is not really the nazunia, it is Basho's insight, his open heart, his sympathetic vision, his meditativeness.

Meditation is alchemy: it can transform the base metal into gold, it can transform a nazunia flower into a lotus.

And the word 'carefully' means attentively, with awareness, meditatively, with love, with caring. One can just look without caring at all, then one will miss the whole point.

That word 'carefully' has to be remembered in all its meanings, but the root meaning is meditatively.

It means without mind, no clouds of thought in the sky of your consciousness, no memo-ries passing by, no desires... nothing at all, utter emptiness.

When in such a state of no-mind you look, even a nazunia flower is transported into ano-ther world.

It becomes a lotus of the paradise, it is no longer part of the earth; the extraordinary has been found in the ordinary. Buddha calls it tathata. Basho's haiku is a haiku of tathata.