Matsuo Bashõ , Een woedende zee!

Een woedende zee!
tot aan het eiland Sado
strekt zich de melkweg.

(vert. J. van Tooren)

Araumiya
Sado ni yokotau	
Amanogawa

The rough sea -
Extending toward Sado Isle,
The Milky Way

(vert. R.H. Blyth)

Uitgezocht door:

Vincent Icke, sterrenkundige, natuurkundige, en beeldend kunstenaar. Hij woonde hier tot 2006. Het gedicht stond op de zijgevel van zijn huis. De scheuren, die op de foto nog zichtbaar zijn, heeft hij later eigenhandig gerepareerd. Zijn antwoord op de vraag naar de achtergronden van zijn keuze: "Wat de haiku betreft: ten eerste vond ik 'm mooi. Ten tweede zit er een sterrenkundige beeldspraak in. Ten derde is het onderwerp ontroerend. Sado was een gevangenis-eiland, zoiets als in Amerika Alcatraz. Basho geeft aan dat de veroordeelden daar van het vasteland gescheiden zijn door de "woedende zee", een onoverbrugbare hindernis, zowel geografisch (zee) als emotioneel (woedend, omdat zij door hun medemensen verstoten zijn). Maar desondanks worden zij, of je het wilt of niet, met het land en de vrije mensen verbonden door die lichtende band aan de hemel, de Melkweg, die een brug vormt van horizon tot horizon."

Signatuur Vincent Icke

Signatuur Vincent Icke

Icke ondertekende met de hierbij afgebeelde signatuur. Door hem zelf ontworpen om op de Japanse kersenbloesem te lijken, die je ook wel in Japanse familiewapens tegenkomt. Het beeld is samengesteld uit zijn initialen "v" en "i" (onder elkaar geplaatst, zodat het puntje op de i in de vork van de v valt), vijfmaal herhaald met 72 graden rotatie, en vervolgens zijn de niet-overlappende gedeelten ingekleurd.

Uit "The master haiku Poet Matsuo Basho"

door Makoto Ueda (Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1970).

  Accompanied by Sora, Basho left Edo in the late spring of 1689.  
Probably because of his more stern and ascetic attitude toward the journey, 
farewell festivities were fewer and quieter this time. He proceeded 
northward along the main road stopping at places of interest such as the 
Tosho Shrine at Nikko, the hot spa at Nasu, and an historic castle site at 
Iizuka.  When he came close to the Pacific coast near Sendai he admired the 
scenic beauty of Matsushima. From Hiraizumi, a town well known as the 
site of a medieval battle, Basho turned west and reached the coast of the 
Sea of Japan at Sakata.  After a short trip to Kisagata in the north, he turned
southwest and followed the main road along the coast.  It was from this 
coast that he saw the island of Sado in the distance and wrote one of his 
most celebrated poems:

  Araumiya             The rough sea -
  Sado ni yokotau    Extending toward Sado Isle,
  Amanogawa         The Milky Way.

  Because of the rains, the heat, and the rugged road, this part of the journey 
was very hard for Basho and Sora, and they were both exhausted when they 
finally arrived at Kanazawa.  They rested at the famous hot spring at 
Yamanaka for a few days, but Sora, apparently because of prolonged ill-
health, decided to give up the journey and left his master there. Basho 
continued alone until he reached Fukui.  There he met an old acquaintance 
who accompanied him as far as Tsuruga, where another old friend had come 
to meet Basho, and the two traveled south until they arrived at Ogaki, a 
town Basho knew well.  A number of Basho's friends and disciples were 
there, and the long journey through unfamiliar areas was finally over. One 
hundred and fifty-six days had passed since he left Edo.

  The travel marked a climax in Basho's literary career. He wrote some 
of his finest haiku during the journey. The resulting journal The Narrow 
Road to the Deep North  (Oku no Hosomichi), is one of the highest 
attainments in the history of poetic diaries in Japan. His literary 
achievement was no doubt a result of his deepening maturity as a man. He 
had come to perceive a mode of life by which to resolve some deep dilemmas 
and to gain peace of mind.  It was based on the idea of sabi, the concept that 
one attains perfect spiritual serenity by immersing oneself in the egoless, 
impersonal life of nature. The complete absorption of one's petty ego into 
the vast, powerful, magnificient universe - this was the underlying theme 
of many poems by Basho at this time, including the haiku on the Milky Way 
we have just seen.  This momentary identification of man with inanimate 
nature was, in his view, essential to poetic creation. Though he never wrote 
a treatise on the subject, there is no doubt that Basho conceived some 
unique ideas about poetry in his later years. Apparently it was during this 
journey that he began thinking about poetry in more serious, philosophical 
terms.  The two earliest books known to record Basho's thoughts on poetry, 
Records of the Seven Days (Kikigaki Nanukagusa) and Conversations at 
Yamanaka (Yamanaka Mondo), resulted from it.

• Wikipedia
• www.haiku.nl: Een prachtig vormgegeven Nederlandstalige site (volg ook de links)
• The Haiku and the Tanka
• The Southampton Buddhist Centre Newsletter (zie "A short account of the great Japanese poet Matsuo Bashõ (1644-1694) by M. M. Vagg.")