Basho Lyrics

A Haibun Poem called Basho

Four of Basho's haiku followed by Commentary

Followed by one haiku by me…WC

Basho

Furu ika ya… kawazu/ tobi komu… mizzu no oto

Old Pond…frogs jumped in… sound of water

Lafacadio Hearn

He wanted to be like Basho

He wanted his poetry to be earworms

In every language group on the planet

He wanted to change the way the earth's people think

How to be present in the moment

How to experience others as they are – frogs, water, Old men, young ladies

Newborn babies, Mexican immigrants, Palestinian refugees

Kare eda ni …karasu no tomari…akino kuri

On a leafless bough… an old crow is sitting...Autumn...darkening now

Translator Harold Gould Henderson

Like Basho

He wanted to expand peoples consciousness

He wanted them to learn to think in haiku

He want them to think… globally, empathicly, wholisticly

He wanted them to learn to think in in Japanese, Chinese

Hindi, Ukrainian, Russian, French, Spanish, English

He wanted them to learn to think

Kimi ya cho… Ware ya sochi no… yumi gokoro

You are the butterfly… And I the dreaming heart… of Sochi

Translator Reginald H. Blythe

What is the dream and what is the reality

Cannot the dream be the reality? Cannot the reality be the dream

Are poets not all butterflies born to transform our world into a flowery reality

He dreamed of a peaceful world where humankind made music

Which reached out into the stars creating flower gardens

Basho uete… mazu nikumu ogi no…futaba /kana

I planted a banana tree… but first I see only two stalks...of dreaded weed

Hiroaki Sato Translator

He wanted everyone to learn reverence of nature

Reverence of the other

Reverence

Rhododendron bush

Planted by his open door

All weeds now flowers

WC Thwing Translator