Winter is rough, there is no doubt. It's nice enough at first, but as the weeks go on, it becomes challenging. In premodern times, however, it was even tougher. In the winter of 1688, Bashō wrote on this subject:
さし籠る葎の友か冬菜売り
sashikomoru mugura no tomo fuyunauri
staying indoors
a friend to bedstraw
winter green peddler
—Bashō
(trans. David LaSpina[1])
This is not one of Bashō's best haiku, but it illustrates some interesting things about life in old Japan, so I wanted to cover it.
Back in the day, one couldn't do much in winter, so one would stay at home, sitting around the hearth to keep warm and basically just wait out the winter. Thinking of this life, no wonder everyone used to be so excited when spring came.
Poets used the word fuyugomori (冬籠り) to describe this time, "winter isolation", "winter confinement", or maybe "winter seclusion". Here Bashō is using sashikomoru (さし籠る) which is more like "staying indoors". He might have used that instead of the former because he mentions winter in the last line and didn't want to repeat it. Then again, it may have been a more purposeful choice. Sashikomoru implies the accumulation of soot; Bashō might be referring to himself in a self-deprecating way, which haiku poets of old tended to do. This had little to do with depression as we might think today and more to do with being humble.
In the next line he refers to mugura (葎), "bedstraw", or "Galium sprium"—also called "goosegrass". This stuff grew on old houses and poor people would use it to stuff their futon with. Well, it still grows on old houses—and everywhere else, but I don't think people use it for much these days. It's just a weed to be got rid of now. Anyway, no doubt Bashō also engaged in this practice. These weeds would very much have been his friend.
Finally in the last line he talks of the fuyunauri (冬菜売り), or the "winter greens seller" in days of old. The town near his village was famous for komatsuna (小松菜). In fact, the vegetable was named for the town! The town was named Komatsugawa; when the eighth Tokugawa shogun visited he enjoyed the greens so much that he started referring to them as "komatsuna", meaning literally "greens of Komatsu". Anyway, so this is probably the winter green the peddler was selling. Komatsuna is "Japanese Mustard Spanish" according to Wikipedia. It's a fairly common green and is quite good. It is grown year-round now, but in those days it was only in winter.
There are actually many interpretations of this haiku, as perhaps you can imagine. I take it as setting the scene of his current winter seclusion and then jumping to his excitement when the winter greens seller comes around. That would have been a chance both for much needed fresh food and also some human contact, both of which would have been hard to come by in winter.
If you have a different view, let me know below in the comments.
The kigo (season word) here is... Well, none of these words are in my saijiki (kigo encyclopedia). But I guess it's probably sashikomoru or the implied fuyugomori, and that would be for all of winter.
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| David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. |
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That is, me! If you like this translation, feel free to use it. Just credit me. Also link here if you can. ↩