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White dew (shiratsuyu, hakuro)
***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Autumn
***** Category: Heaven
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Explanation
white dew, shiratsuyu, hakuro 白露
Read all about
Dew, dewdrops (tsuyu)
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Worldwide use
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Things found on the way
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HAIKU
Memorial stone of a haiku by Matsuo Basho.
白露も こぼさぬ萩の うねりかな
shiratsuyu mo kobosanu hagi no uneri kana
not even spilling
the white dew -
swaying bush clover
Tr. Gabi Greve
Temple Myo-O In in Gunma and Fudo Myo-O
. . . Compiled by Larry Bole
This haiku of Basho's is from 1693, the year before he died. Bush clover ('hagi') is traditionally associated with dew, among other things. Bush clover has also been used to represent women, as Basho did in his "bush clover and moon" haiku from "The Narrow Road."
Though bush-clover
always stirs,
not one dewdrop falls.
trans. Lucien Stryk
without dropping
its bright white dew,
a bush clover sways
trans. Barnhill
Bushclover undulates
without scattering
the white dew
trans. Stephen Addiss
Bush clover in blossom waves
Without spilling
A drop of dew.
translator not found--see:
http://thegreenleaf.co.uk/HP/basho/00Bashohaiku.htm
The flowers of the bush-clover
Do not let fall, for all their swaying,
Their drops of bright dew.
trans. Blyth
Blyth comments:
The lespedeza, or bush-clover, is a graceful bush-like plant whose stems rise from the ground and bend over all together like the spray of a fountain. When the wind blows, the bushes move in waves, but the white and red blossoms do not drop the dew or rain that they hold.
This verse is to some extent a picture, but only a poet could paint it, and only a poet could see it.
[end of comment]
Bush-clover does not spill
one small white dewdrop--though its waves
are never still.
trans. Henderson
Henderson comments:
Other versions have 'wo' for 'mo', and 'hito-tsuyu' (one dewdrop) for 'shiro-tsuyu'. This translation is rather free, in the belief that 'uneri' refers more to waves like the waves of a wheat field than to the actual curve of the branches..., and that "dewdrop" has its usual suggestion of short human life. There are many explanations of this poem, ranging from the highly religious to the erotic.
[end of comment]
Where I have shown an ellipses in Henderson's comment, he is making a comparative reference to a haiku by Issa (regarding bush-clover and waves):
hagi mohaya ironaru nami ya yu harai
Bush-clover there,
now all in waves of color:
evening prayer!
Issa, trans. Henderson
Henderson says that this haiku is a "picture of the Hagi-Tamagawa at sunset."
He goes on to say:
"There were six Tamagawa (Jewel Rivers 玉川) all celebrated in literature and art."
Hagi Tamagawa 萩の玉川
Mu Tamagawa, Six Tama Rivers
Six Tamagawa by Hiroshige
Toi Tama River
Noji Tama River 野路の玉川
Ide Tama River 井手の玉川
Chofu Tama River 調布の玉川
Koya Tama River 高野の玉川
Noda Tama River 野田の玉川
other varieties include
たづくりの玉川 Tazukuri no Tamagawa
橋衣の玉川
Tamagawa is also spelled: 多摩川
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. . Compiled by Larry Bole
白露に阿吽の旭さしにけり
shiratsuyu ni aun no asahi sashinikeri
On the white dewdrops
Shines the alpha and omega
Of morning sunlight.
Boosha, trans. Donald Keene
shiratsuyu ni shigo ken no komura kana
In the white dew,
Four or five houses,
A hamlet.
Shiki, trans. Blyth
shiratsuyu ni joudomairi no keiko kana
From the white dew-drops,
Learn the way
To the Pure Land.
Issa, trans. Blyth
shiratsuyu ya ibara no toge ni hitotsu-zutsu
White dew on the bramble;
One drop
On each thorn.
Buson, trans. Blyth
White dew--
one drop
on each thorn.
Buson, trans. Hass
shiratsuyu ni sabishiki aji o wasururu na
Never forget
The lonely taste
Of the white dew.
Basho, trans. Blyth
白露や死んでゆく日も帯しめて
shiratsuyu ya shinde yuku hi mo obi shimete
the white dew . . .
on the day when I die too
tying my obi
Mitsuhashi Takajo
trans. UVa Library Etext Center: Japanese TextInitiative
And speaking of shiratsuyu, during WWII,
the Japanese Navy named various types of destroyers after various types of weather, and other elements of nature, such as varous moon names, various wind names, clouds, seasons. There was a class of destroyers called Shiratsuyu (White Dew, Shimmering Dew), named after the lead ship of the class.
I suspect there were a lot of names of Japanese destroyers that could be found as words used in haiku and other Japanese poetry.
白露型
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In a gust of wind the white dew
On the autumn grass
Scatters like a broken necklace.
—Bunya No Asayasu
.. Tr. Sam Hamill, Love Poems from the Japanese
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Related words
***** Dew, dewdrops (tsuyu)
***** Bush clover (hagi)
***** ..... WHITE in Haiku (shiroi, haku)
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1 comments:
Tamagawa ...
By Hiroshige
Sho-koku Mutsu Tamagawa
The different scenes for each river are as follows :
1. The Kimuta Tama River, Province of Settsu. Two women pounding cloth by the edge of a stream in the light of a full moon. The masterpiece of the set. (See Plate 25.)
Poem by Toshiyori : " The sighing of the pine branches sharpens the autumn loneliness, where they beat the cloth by the banks of Tama River."
2. The Noji Tama River, Province of Yamato. A nobleman (or poet), attended by two retainers, looking at the moon's reflection in the stream, whose banks are fringed with flowering bush-clover.
Poem by Toshiyori : "We shall come again to Tama River by the meadow-path, where the bush-clover grows, and it may be we shall see the moon's image lying among the ripples."
3. The Ide Tama River, Province of Yamashiro. The poet, Ariwarano-Narihira, crossing the river on horseback, with two attendants ; on the banks yellow roses in bloom.
Poem by Toshinari : "We stop our horse and give him refreshing water from Tarna River in Ide, where the yellow roses blow."
4. The Chofu Tama River, Province of Musashi. Two women pounding cloth in a mortar, another rinsing it in the river, and some distance behind a fourth spreading it out on the ground to dry. Fuji in the background. Another very fine plate. (Reproduced in colours at Plate B, page 22.) (See also Plate 24 for illustration of this view in the oblong set.)
Poem by Sada-iye : "In the vale of Tama River the cloth which is hung on the high leaves of the hedges shakes off the morning dew."
5. The Koya Tama River, Kii Province. Two pilgrims standing by the edge of the stream (in the oblong series three are shown resting by the bank) gazing at the water, said to be poisoned. In the background a high mountain, and on the right a waterfall. (Illustrated in Happer's Heritage of Hiroshige.)
Poem by Kubo-Daishi : "The traveller may forget everything ; he might forget to beware of fetching water from the Tama River in Koya."
6. The Noda Tama River, Mutsu Province. A Court lady or poetess (in the oblong series two ladies) and her attendant watching a flight of sanderlings across the water.
Poem by No-in : "When evening comes the wind blows salt in Mutsu, and the plovers of the river cry over the wide fields."
(The above translations of the poems are taken from the set catalogued in the British Museum collection.)
http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/hiroshige/stewart/chapter_17.htm
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