[For Seniors] Spring Haiku. Spring Activity

In our world, even the grass around here turns into rice cakes.Kobayashi Issa

In spring, you often see mugwort growing wild, don’t you? Some of you may even have picked that mugwort to make kusa-mochi (mugwort rice cakes).

This haiku by Kobayashi Issa expresses just that springlike feeling.

The season word is “kusa-mochi,” which signifies spring.

The phrase “Oraga yo ya” conveys a feeling of gratitude for the world in which one lives.

It expresses thankfulness for being able to make kusa-mochi from the wild mugwort that appears in spring.

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sasashina

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Rainy as it is—already mid-March, huh.Mantarō Kubota

This haiku expresses a sense of loneliness as the busy season of spring moves along, while watching the rain start and stop.

Even though spring is advancing, what’s depicted here is March, so the rain conjured is cold, which heightens the feeling of melancholy.

The phrase noting that it’s already mid-March is also key; it conveys the speed of time, which slips by quickly if you let your guard down.

Because the poem portrays loneliness throughout, it also seems to carry a message about cherishing time.

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kappamaki

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Evening swallow—there is no plan for me for tomorrow.Kobayashi Issa

Yūtsubame refers to swallows that fly at dusk.

While swallows have nests to return to, Kobayashi Issa likely had no place to stay that night.

Perhaps he is quietly speaking to the swallows, sharing his loneliness and anxiety.

Issa lost his birth mother at the age of three, and although he gained a new mother at eight, he could not adapt and was sent out to work as a servant.

Maybe such feelings lie deep within him as well.

It’s a piece perfectly suited to March, the graduation season.

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Though unlike my face, let a verse burst forth—first cherry blossomsMatsuo Bashō

This haiku depicts how I and my disciples have grown older, while also conveying the beauty of cherry blossoms that transcends age.

It suggests that when expressing the beauty of the season’s first blossoms, words may leap out that seem unfitting for a face marked by years.

It also feels like guidance to the disciples: that youthful language is better suited to describing the first cherry blossoms.

The piece seems to carry a technique for handling the sense of age embedded in words—how to control it and shape its effect.

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kappamaki

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First thunder— startle at everything, just out of illnessMasaoka Shiki

The first thunder that occurs after the start of spring (Risshun) is called hatsu-rai, “the first thunder.” Because insects, startled by this thunder, are said to come out of their holes, it’s also known as “insect-summoning thunder.” In this haiku, could it be Masaoka Shiki—just recovering from illness—who is startled out by that first thunder? March often brings health troubles due to temperature swings and changes in our environment.

Reading this haiku makes us more mindful of our health, while also letting us feel that the signs of spring are just around the corner.

Do try reading it in March to savor the season.

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sasashina

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A snake leaves its hole—spring water on the stone wallKawahigashi Hekigoto

This haiku expresses the arrival of spring through the image of a snake awakening from hibernation and crawling out of a hole in a stone wall.

The fact that it emerges from a sunlit stone wall is also key, and by overlapping the snake’s movement with that setting, the warmth is conveyed.

The “spring water” that appears at the end also suggests melting snow, clearly expressing the shift from winter to spring.

Because the scenery is depicted so plainly, the warmth embedded within it can be felt directly.

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kappamaki

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Dolls’ Festival— on the city’s edge, the Peach MoonYosa Buson

One of the events in March is the Peach Festival.

It’s heartwarming to see the bright and charming dolls for the festival displayed at home.

Even in rural areas far from the capital, people welcome the Doll Festival after enduring the severe cold of winter.

Thinking of it that way, you can sense the modest lives of ordinary people.

For older adults, this haiku may also overlap with the time of the Doll Festival from their childhood.

It would be nice to recite the haiku while talking with seniors about their memories of the festival.

The conversation might blossom and become lively.

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Nakajima Junko

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