Musings on Buson

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BY Buson
TRANSLATED BY Edward McFadden
花に暮て我家遠き野道かな

cherry blossom viewing over
my own house far away
out on a country road
春をしむ座主の聯句に召れけり

spring reluctant to go
to the verse writing party of the head priest
I have been summoned
稲妻にこぼるゝ音や竹の露

with the flash of lightning
a scattering sound
dewdrops from the bamboo
庵の月主をとへば芋堀に

moon over the hermitage
if you ask the master
a potato in the canal
鹿ながら山影門に入日哉

though a deer
he goes through the San Ei gate
in broad daylight
秋風や酒肆に詩うたふ漁者樵者

autumn wind —
singing songs in the sake shop
fishermen, lumberjacks
几董と鳴滝に遊ぶ / 茸狩や頭を挙れば峰の月

Having fun with Kitō at Naru Falls

mushroom gathering —
if we lift our heads[1]
moon on the ridge
一 条もどり橋のもとに柳風呂といふ娼 家有。ある夜、太祇とともに 此楼にの ぼりて / 羽織着て綱もきく夜や川ちどり

Under Ippo-modori Bridge there is the so-called
Willow Wind Baths brothel. On the night in question,
Taigi and his friends were climbing up this lookout.

wearing haori[2]
a rope is necessary too, at night
river plovers
— HEADER DETAIL FROM A PAINTING BY BUSON (Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art)
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REFERENCES

  1. Or, if we lift the kusakanmuri radical (艹) from the kanji (茸) we get (耳) which is the moon (月) on the ridge (一). Buson is certainly playing with Kitō here!
  1. Japanese formal coat; in this case, the coat given to the patron of the brothel to wear. The rope of the second line can also mean the prostitute. The haiku bristles with meanings. Plovers have a brown coat with a white ring about the neck. Also, a rope might be necessary to climb the tower, or to keep the haori from opening.
 

Biography

YOSA BUSON (1716-1784) was a Japanese painter and poet of the Edo period. Following Matsuo Bashō (Narrow Road to the Far North), he sought to restore the quality of poetry in that tradition. Buson wrote verse depicting the lower strata of the Japanese social order as well as common, overlooked creatures. He was self-deprecating, identifying himself at times as a “scholar-amateur” and an itinerant traveler. Talking about his friendship with Sakaki Hyakusen, he said, “We wrote in free, audacious ways, neither of us seeking fame in haikai.”

A recent graduate of the creative writing program at the University of Montana, EDWARD MCFADDEN‘s translations of the Edo period haiku artist, Yosa Buson, have appeared in Kyoto Journal, RHINO, Sugar Mule, and Zero Ducats. He currently lives in Japan.

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