元日や思えばさびし秋の暮
ganjitsu ya omoeba sabishi aki no kure
first day—
I feel the loneliness
of the end of autumn
—Bashō
(trans. David LaSpina[1])
New Year's holiday is a time to be with family in Japan. Even today, while some go out and celebrate in the Western fashion, most stay at home with family. It can be strangely quiet outside, almost eerily so. I recall the first year I was in Japan long ago, I visited Tokyo during New Years holiday. During the day or two leading up to the 1st, it was like a ghost town, like one of those movies you see where everyone disappears but the hero. There were still a few people about, but they were all quiet too, as if they felt the strangeness of the atmosphere too.
Besides the feeling of the general quietness, since it is a time to be with family, there is a loneliness to being alone. Even people who otherwise might scorn family might also feel compelled to be with family on this most special holiday of the year.
This quietness continues for the first day of the year, when people are either at home with family or going to shrine to pray for the coming year. Near the shrine it might be loud, but elsewhere is much more muted.
Bashō is feeling that in this haiku. It reminds him of an autumn evening. Autumn evenings, especially towards the end of the season, can have that same stillness, the eerie quietness that makes it seem like everything is standing still that makes us feel lonely, portending the general loneliness of winter.
On the old calendar New Year's Day was also the first day of spring, making Bashō's comparison to autumn even stronger. The kigo (season word) here is ganjitsu, "first day".
—Bashō, 1644-1694, is generally considered the greatest haiku poet in Japan and in the world. He developed many of the techniques that haiku poets still use today, and is widely studied.
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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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