あら何ともなや昨日は過ぎて河豚汁
ara nan tomo na ya kinō wa sugite fukutojiru
well, nothing's happened
yesterday is over—
blowfish soup
—Bashō
(trans. David LaSpina[1])
As all of you have undoubtably heard, blowfish can be deadly. Even today when precautions are much higher than in Bashō's day a percentage of people who eat blowfish do still die. Between 2012 and 2021 in Japan 4 people died from eating it and 253 were hospitalized for poisoning. The poison is in fact very potent, stronger than cyanide, and can kill very quickly if ingested. It works by paralyzing the diaphragm muscle so the person can't breathe. Even if they get to the hospital and are saved, they sometimes remain in a coma for a week or two.
I don't know if it's true or not, but everyone always tells me (correction: rich people who often eat fugu—it's not cheap—always tell me) that an especially good chef leaves just enough poison that you can feel your lips go slightly numb when you eat it. Crazy people. But these days many varieties are farmed and these contain no poison. Safe, but maybe not as appealing to those who only want to eat it because of the risk? At any rate, I've never had it and now that I have kids I don't feel the taste can be worth the risk however small that may be.
For whatever reason, blowfish soup is often more deadly than blowfish sashimi. Maybe because it becomes more concentrated in the soup. In Bashō's day the rule of thumb was if you survived more than 24 hours you would be ok. Hence the mention of yesterday being over in his haiku.
Blowfish—fugu in Japanese—is most associated with winter. Blowfish soup is a kigo (season word) for all of winter.
| 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. ↩
