Haiku 27: The Cat's Child

Here is today's haiku:

猫の子にかして遊ばす手まり哉

And in romaji:

neko no ko ni kashite asobasu temari kana

And English: "A loan for the kitten to play with: New Year's handball."

This is another New Year's haiku by Issa. The hand-ball, te-mari, is a lovely little embroidered ball; you can see pictures of temari balls at Wikipedia. As that article explains, mothers make these embroidered balls for their children as New Year's gift, putting a secret good wish written on a slip of paper inside the ball. In this haiku, Issa has loaned a temari ball to a cat's-child, neko-no-ko, which is Japanese for "kitten."

temari balls

My vocabulary for today:

手
て
"hand"

Haiku 26: Toshigami

Here is today's haiku:

とし神やことしも御世話下さるる

And in romaji:

toshi-gami ya ko toshi mo o-sewa kudasaruru

And English: "New Year god: I humbly beg your help this year too."

This is a haiku by Issa, humbling invoking the help of the Shinto god, kami, of the New Year, toshi: 年神, toshi-gami. He needed help last year, and this year too: も, mo. You can read more about Toshigami at Wikipedia.

Toshigami

My vocabulary for today:

神
かみ
"god"

Haiku 25: Lonely autumn evenings

Here is today's haiku:

元日や思へば淋し秋の暮

And in romaji:

ganjitsu ya omoeba sabishi aki no kure

And English: "New Year's Day... lonely thoughts of autumn evenings."

This is a haiku by Basho, and it expresses a backward-looking take on the New Year, and the loneliness of the days that have now passed.

(late 17th-century Japanese painting)

My vocabulary for today:

暮
くれ
"dusk, twilight"

Haiku 24: New Year snow

Here is today's haiku:

あれ小雪さあ元日ぞ元日ぞ

And in romaji:

are ko yuki saa ganjitsu zo ganjitsu zo

And English: "Hey! Light snow! Get a move on! New Year's here! New Year!"

This is another haiku by Issa: it's a New Year's Day haiku, a "first day" poem, gan-jitsu, 元日. David Lanoue remarks, "Issa playfully scolds the snow. New Year's Day, the most auspicious day of the year, should be clear."

art by Itō Shūki

My vocabulary for today:

小
こ
"small"

Haiku 23: Scraggly plum tree

Here is today's haiku:

痩梅のなりどしもなき我身哉

And in romaji:

yase ume no naridoshi mo naki waga mi kana

And English: "Scraggly plum tree: no fruit again this year — me too."

This is a haiku by Issa, in his typical self-deprecating style, commiserating with the barren plum tree. You can see the word "year," toshi in naridoshi, なりどし.

art by Motsurin Jōtō

My vocabulary for today:

梅
うめ
"plum"

Haiku 22: First Month

Here is today's haiku:

猫塚に正月させるごまめ哉

And in romaji:

neko tsuka ni shōgatsu saseru gomame kana

And English: "The cat's grave, First Month: time to put the dried sardines."

This is one of my favorite poems by Issa. It's not exactly a New Year poem, but it is a "First Month" poem, sho-gatsu, 正月. Issa marks the New Year by remembering a beloved cat from past years. No flowers for this grave, though: gomame instead.

art by Hōzōbō Shinkai Japanese

My vocabulary for today:

塚
つか
"grave, mound"

Haiku 21: Uncut gem

Here is today's haiku:

あら玉のとし立かへる虱哉

And in romaji:

ara tama no toshi tachikaeru shirami kana

And English: "Rough gem of the New Year has come again... for my lice; kana."

This is a haiku by Issa, with his characteristic humility: the New Year is a gem, rough, a yet-to-be-polished gem... and that New Year gem comes equally to us, and to the lice. Who do share the world with us, and perhaps even share our body, as in Issa's case. Kana indeed.

Beggar Monk by Kazan Shimomura

My vocabulary for today:

玉
たま
"gem"

Haiku 20: New Year Goddess

Here is today's haiku:

あばら家も年徳神の御宿哉

And in romaji:

abara ya mo toshi tokujin no o-yado kana

And English: "Even this wreck, my hut, welcomes the New Year goddess (kana)."

This is a haiku by Issa, one of many haiku about his ramshackle home. This one is specifically about how his home, no matter how dilapidated, can be home to Toshi-Tokujin, the goddess of the New Year. She is a lucky goddess, but she likes things to be neat and tidy, so you need to tidy up your home... even if it is rundown and dilapidated, like Issa's poor hut.

Toshitokujin in the form of a goddess

My vocabulary for today:

宿
やど
"lodging"

Haiku 19: Trust in Buddha

Here is today's haiku:

あなた任せ任せぞとしは犬もとり

And in romaji:

anata makase makase zo toshi wa inu mo tori

And English: "Trust in Buddha — trust! Even you've gained a year, dog."

This is a haiku by Issa, and it refers to the practice of counting years of life with the New Year. Just as Issa becomes a year older with the arrival of the New Year, so does the dog. The practice of counting years based on birthday is used for official purposes, but there are many classic haiku for the New Year which invoke the adding of a year to everyone's age on that day.

The phrase あなた任せ, "anata makase," is an important one for Issa; you can read more about that here: Pure Land Haiku: The Art of Priest Issa. As Issa gets older, year by year, and the dog too, all the more reason to put your trust in the ground of being.

puppy

My vocabulary for today:

任
まかせ
"entrust"

Parable 19: Shoes and Umbrella

"Go practice for seven years," said the teacher.

The monk practiced for seven years. Then he went to see his teacher.

It was raining, and when he entered the teacher's house, he left his wet shoes and umbrella on the porch.

The teacher did not greet him. Instead, he asked, "Did you leave your shoes and umbrella on the porch?" 

"Yes," replied the monk.

"And did you place the umbrella to the left of the shoes, or to the right?"

The monk did not answer.

The monk did not know.

"Go practice for seven more years," said the teacher, smiling.

~ ~ ~

You can read this story in 108 Zen Parables and Stories by Olga Gutsol. It is traditionally told about the Zen teacher Ikkyū Sōjun; you can read more about Ikkyū at Wikipedia.

This is a very simple story, and I really like it. We practice mindfulness and awareness in my meditation group, but I'm a long way from this awareness. Although I'm practicing... practicing...

monks in Cambodia

Proverb 18: On a weeping face

Here is today's proverb:

泣きっ面に蜂

And in romaji:

nakittsura ni hachi

And English: "On a weeping face: a wasp."

Compare the English saying, "Troubles never come singly" or "Adding insult to injury." That English saying is very abstract, but the Japanese saying is much more concrete: you don't know why the person is crying to begin with, but it doesn't matter; what matters only is that more trouble is coming, a wasp — or bee or hornet; all the possible English translation of 蜂 hachi mean trouble. 

In other words: Life is suffering. And then more suffering! 

This is a popular Japanese saying, so if you Google it, lots of illustrations come up, such as this one:

My vocabulary for today:

面
つら
"face"

Haiku 18: In the morning glories

Here is today's haiku:

朝顔に釣瓶とられてもらひ水

And in romaji:

asagao ni tsurube torarete morai mizu

And English: "In the morning glories, well-bucket's stuck: go get water."

This is another haiku by Chiyo-Ni, whom I featured yesterday also with her poem First Snow. You'll see this poem translated in various ways, but the idea is always the same: morning glories have overgrown the well-bucket, and rather than ripping away the flowers, Chiyo-Ni is going to go get water somewhere else.

One of my favorite things about learning Japanese is seeing how metaphors work across languages: the flower called "morning glory" is asa-gao in Japanese, "morning-face."

morning glories by Suzuki Kiitsu

My vocabulary for today:

水
みず
"water"

Parable 18: The Greedy, Conniving Crow

The Buddha was born as a bird and became their king.

Meanwhile, there was a crow who hopped along the highway, eating the food that humans dropped there. This crow told the other birds, "It's too dangerous to go there," but she kept going there anyway, greedy for food.

One day as the crow was eating, she saw a caravan coming down the highway. “I’ll fly away soon!” she said, but she kept on eating... and so she was crushed under the wheels of a wagon.

“The highway is dangerous," said the Buddha, "but being greedy is even more dangerous."

~ ~ ~

This is another jataka tale about one of the Buddha's previous births, and in this story, the Buddha is much more recognizably himself in this story, and we humans are much in need of learning this same lesson. This is the Anusasika Jataka; you can read a literal translation from the Pali here. In the story of the present, the Buddha is rebuking a greedy nun who warned others not to go to a certain quarter of the city to ask for alms so that she could gather all the alms there for herself... until she ended up with a broken leg. Here is how the Buddha transitions into the story of his past life: "As now, Brethren," said he, "so too in a past time she gave warnings which she did not follow herself; and then as now she came to harm." So saying, he told this story of the past.

a hooded carrion crow in the road

Parable 17: Storing the Milk

A foolish man was planning a party. "The party is in a month, and I'll need a lot of milk for my guests," he thought. "But I don't have enough pots, and it would go sour anyway."
Then he noticed his best cow. "Aha! She can store the milk!" 

So he led the cow's calf away. "Nurse somewhere else!" he told the calf. "Your mother is busy holding my party milk!"

The day of the party arrived. "There will be so much milk!" the man said. 

But the cow had gone dry; there was no milk there for his guests.

~ ~ ~

This another one of the stories from the Buddhist "Garland of Fools" collection; you can see more fool stories here. You can find an English translation of this story online at the Internet Archive in Li Rongxi's A Garland for the Fool. You can also find the Chinese text and another English translation online.

The sermon attached to the story offers a very ingenious lesson that we can all learn from the foolish man and the milk: "This is like stupid people who want to give alms all at once and say that they will wait until they possess great wealth. Usually, before they can accumulate enough money, it is seized by the government, lost in a fire or flood, or taken by robbers. Or else they may even die before they get around to giving. They are just like that stupid man who tried to store up milk."

So, don't try to hoard the "milk," including the milk of human kindness. Let it flow! Now!

Here is an Indian sculpture of a cow and her calf:

Haiku 17: First snow

Here is today's haiku:

はつ雪やもの書けば消え書けば消え

And in romaji:

hatsu yuki ya mono kakeba kie kakeba kie

And English: "First snow: I write something, it disappears; I write, it disappears."

This is a haiku by Chiyo-Ni, a remarkable woman haiku poet who lived in the 18th century. You can read more about her at Wikipedia. This poem is included in the recent book by Patricia Donegan and Yoshie Ishibashi, The Poetry of Chiyo-Ni, and in their note to this poem, they explain that this poem belongs to her later life, and the idea of the writing disappearing is a comment on the fragility of her writing and of her life, as quick to melt as snow. I've seen some translations of this poem with the word "melt" instead of "disappear," but I stuck with disappearing: the snow melts, but it also makes things disappear when the snow covers them... and then those things return.

My vocabulary for today:

雪
ゆき
"snow"

Proverb 17: One day, one step

Here is today's proverb:

一日一歩

And in romaji:

ichi-nichi ip-po

And English: "One day, one step."

This is one of my favorite Japanese sayings! We say in English "one step at a time," which is good advice, but "One day, one step" is even better advice I think — and yes, I'm trying to blog every day here. One day, one post.

Note the euphonic change, called rendaku in Japanese, that takes place in the compound: ほ (ho) becomes ぽ (po).

from lovepik

My vocabulary for today:

歩
ほ
"step"

Parable 16: The Two Otters

There were once two otters who caught a fish, and then they quarreled about how to divide it.

“The middle is mine," one otter said. "You can have the head and the tail."

“No!” said the other otter. “I want the middle! I'll give you the head and the tail.”

A greedy jackal came by. "I'll be glad to judge between you," he said.

The otters explained what had happened.

"Oh, that's easy!" the jackal exclaimed. "You take the head... and you take the tail..." and then the jackal ran away with the middle part of the fish for himself.

~ ~ ~

This is another one of the Buddhist Jataka stories, the tales of the Buddha's previous births; this is known as the Dabbhapuppha Jataka. The Buddha was prompted to tell this story because of a greedy monk; you can read about the greedy monk here in the first part of the jataka. And who was the Buddha in this story? As in many of the jatakas which do not contain a noble, wise character, the Buddha was a "tree spirit" who witnessed the dispute of the jackal and the otters.

One lesson learned: don't trust jackals! But the better lesson learned is that it is good to share. If the otters had shared instead of being greedy, they would have had some nice fish to eat.

Here are two Indian otters:

Haiku 16: First dream

Here is today's haiku:

初夢や秘めて語らず一人笑む

And in romaji:

hatsuyume ya himete katarazu hitori emu

And English: "First dream: a secret not told, smiling to myself."

This is a haiku by Ito Shou (you can use Google to translate Shou's Wikipedia article to English). The new year is coming soon, and so too are our first dreams of the new year. English Wikipedia has an article about this dream tradition, called Hatsuyume. Apparently, dreaming of an eggplant is a good sign:

from Leiden University Library

My vocabulary for today:

夢
ゆめ
"dream"

Proverb 16: In the horse's ear

Here is today's proverb:

馬の耳に念仏

And in romaji:

uma no mimi ni nenbutsu

And English: "Nenbutsu in a horse's ear."

The first proverb that I blogged about, 朝題目に宵念仏 asa daimoku ni yoi nenbutsu, invoked the nenbutsu, a Buddhist prayer, and here it is again: this time being spoken into the ear of a hose, who couldn't care less. The horse is not deaf, but he has no idea what the nenbutsu is all about. This is a popular saying in Japan, hence this framed print:

My vocabulary for today:

耳
みみ
"ear"

Proverb 15: The fallen blossom

Here is today's proverb:

落花枝にかえらず 破鏡再び照らさず

And in romaji:

Rakka eda ni kaerazu, hakyou futatabi terasazu.

And English: "The fallen blossom doesn’t return to the branch; a broken mirror doesn't shine again."

I wanted to share this proverb because of the haiku that plays with the fallen petal returning to its branch. That part of this proverb could stand on its own, and the second half could also stand on its. I saw in a blog post that the mirror part is especially associated with divorce, and the wiktionary entry for 破鏡 says it means, literally, "broken mirror" and, figuratively, "parting of a married couple."

fallen blossoms

My vocabulary for today:

鏡
きょう
"mirror"

Haiku 15: A fallen petal

Here is today's haiku:

落花枝にかへると見れば胡蝶哉

And in romaji:

rakka eda ni kaeru to mireba kocho kana

And English: "A fallen petal settling back on its branch... wait, look: a butterfly."

This is a haiku by Arakida Moritake. I was delighted to find out that this haiku is in dialogue with a Japanese proverb about how fallen petals do NOT return to their branch; I'll post that proverb here in a separate post. So, it is a charming haiku to begin with, and all the more so when I know the proverb too! The proverb makes you realize that it cannot really be a petal returning to its branch, and then we can see: a butterfly.

art by Shibata Zeshin

My vocabulary for today:

枝
えだ
"branch"

Parable 15: The Frog in the Well

A frog was born in a well and lived there all her life.

Another frog was born and lived in a lake.

The lake-frog went exploring, and when she hopped up on the edge of the well, she fell in.

She tried to tell the well-frog what the lake was like. "It's big!" she said.

"As big as this?" asked the well-frog, hopping from one side of the well to the other.

"Bigger!" said the lake-frog.

"But there's nothing bigger than the well. You've lost your mind!" shouted the well-frog. "That 'lake' is something you dreamed; it can't be real."

~ ~ ~

After yesterday's proverb about the frog in the well — "The frog in the middle of the well doesn't know the big ocean," 井の中の蛙大海を知らず i no naka no kawazu tai kai wo shira-zu — I knew I wanted to share this parable. I know this story from the Indian tradition (specifically from Sri Ramakrishna), but I am guessing it must be out there somewhere in the Buddhist tradition also, right? Maybe I will come across it in my future reading. I have certainly found many Buddhist parables which are familiar to me already from other religious traditions as well.

Here is a frog who is NOT inside a well:

art by Sakai Hoitsu

Haiku 14: Quick, into the hazy sky!

Here is today's haiku:

とくかすめ とくとくかすめ放ち鳥

And in romaji:

toku kasume toku toku kasume hanachi-dori

And English: "Quick, into the hazy sky! Quick, quick, into the hazy sky! Bird set free."

This is another haiku by Issa. It is very simple, and full of so much empathy with the bird set free; the way I read this haiku, the simplicity of the first part is the simplicity of the bird's thoughts, as if we were experiencing the moment of liberation together with the bird.

art by Maekawa Senpan

My vocabulary for today:

鷄
とり
"bird" 

Proverb 14: Frog in a well

Here is today's proverb:

井の中の蛙大海を知らず

And in romaji:

i no naka no kawazu tai kai wo shira-zu

And English: "The frog in the middle of the well doesn't know the big ocean."

This proverb is sometimes told as a parable too, so I'll have to include the parable version here at the blog too! It's a notion that fits in all kinds of religious traditions, whether the "great ocean" is God or the ground of being or what have you — something bigger than the well in which we frogs find ourselves.

painting of the proverb

My vocabulary for today:

海
かい
"ocean, sea"

Parable 14: The Wise Jackal

The Buddha was once born as a jackal, and he made his home in the cremation fields amidst the corpses.
A wicked man who wanted to kill the jackal had gone there and lay on the ground, club in hand, pretending to be dead.
The jackal approached, but he suspected this man was not really dead, so he grabbed the club in his teeth and tugged. The man tightened his grip, and the jackal let go.“Human, if you were dead, you wouldn’t have tightened your grip.”
The man then sprang up, but he was too late: the Buddha had escaped. 

~ ~ ~

This is yet another one of the Buddha's past-birth stories, a "jataka" tale; this one is known as the Sigala-Jataka (sigala means "jackal" in Pali). I like the fact that the Buddha would be reborn as a jackal, a creature who does not get a lot of respect, and as a jackal he dwells in the cremation grounds, the most lowly place a creature could be. And I guess you could say that the man pretending to be dead was still "grasping" ... he had not learned to pretend to be a good Buddhist even in death! Meanwhile, the deceitful man was the wicked Devadatta in a past life; more about Devadatta at Wikipedia.

Indian painting of a jackal and peacocks

Parable 13: The Grieving Fortune-Teller

There was once a village wise man who claimed to know the future.
So when the villagers saw him weeping bitterly, they asked, "What's wrong?"
"Alas," the man groaned, "I weep because my son will die in seven days."
"But perhaps he won't!" the people replied, offering comfort. "Why weep in advance?"
"Because I know that he will die," the man insisted, "and I am never wrong."
When the boy was still alive after seven days, his father killed him.
At the funeral, the villagers murmured to one another, full of admiration, "Our wise man really can foresee the future!"

~ ~ ~

This story is another "fool's tale" from the Baiyu Jing 百喻經 Sutra of a Hundred Parables. You can find an English translation of this story online at the Internet Archive in Li Rongxi's A Garland for the Fool. You can also find the Chinese text and another English translation online. In this story, the main character is not the fool (he is something even worse!); this time, the fools are the people who go on believing in the wicked fortune-teller. 

Although we might make fun of fortune-tellers and of the people who believe in them, we are all trying to do "fortune-telling" when we think about the future, making plans, and even acting wrongly in the present because of the expectations we had about the future and our willful insistence to make things go as we planned them. So, while this story is obviously fantastical, I think there is a warning here for all of us to ponder whenever we are tempted to live out our futures in advance and to even make our dreams (or fears) come true.

art by Su Hanchen

Proverb 13: Futon on a tombstone

Here is today's proverb:

石に布団は着せられず

And in romaji:

ishi ni futon wa kiserare-zu

And English: "You can’t put a comforter on a tombstone."

I thought this was a brilliant proverb, and it was also fun to see a Japanese word that many English speakers now know — futon — used here: 布団, ふとん, futon. The proverb just says "stone," 石, but the idea is "stone in a graveyard, " i.e. a tombstone, specifically the tombstone of your mother or father. Be kind to them now while you still can... otherwise, it will be too late. So it can be specifically a saying about filial duty and filial love, but also a more general admonition to do good deeds, any good deeds you can, now, before it is too late.

1902 drawing: Japanese cemetery

My vocabulary for today:

石
いし
"stone"

Haiku 13: Mountain doves

Here is today's haiku:

山鳩が泣事をいふしぐれ哉

And in romaji:

yama-bato ga nakigoto wo iu shigure kana

And English: "Mountain doves utter weeping words; winter rain (kana)."

This is another haiku by Issa, and again the focus is on the animals and how they experience the world. It's a cold, wintry, rainy day for me here today, but I cannot hear the birds weeping. I am guessing that Issa really did. I've seen this translated with "grumble" for the pigeon's words, but I went with "weeping words" for 泣事 nakigoto when I saw that one of the metaphorical uses of しぐれ shigure, winter rain, is "shedding tears." I like the sound-play of the compound yama-bato / hato (mountain-dove, i.e. turtle-dove) and naki-goto / koto (weeping words).

(Japanese doves)

My vocabulary for today:

鳩
hato (bato)
"dove, pigeon"