Na no hana ya

菜の花や/月は東に/日は西に
(与謝蕪村 1716-1784)

na no hana ya / tsuki ha higashi ni / hi ha nishi ni
(Yosa Buson 1716-1784)

rapeseed flowers
the moon in the east
the sun in the west

I enjoy the simplicity of this poem, and while one part of me thinks this kind of simplicity could only be achieved successfully in the early days of the haiku form, another part says that it's a sign of a great poet to discover a new way of saying something simply. The balance of the moon in the east and the sun in the west is extraordinarily evocative, both in the image and the phrasing. Of course, I'm probably missing something here, as a famous haiku like this might have a deeper meaning. Something to do with the approach of night and death perhaps.

I discovered an interesting site * discussing teaching this poem to (Japanese) children, with a lot of focus on the colours. I enjoy this kind of thing, partly because it's written in simple Japanese, and partly because it's interesting to see something of how haiku fit into Japanese education. There was also some talk of the kireji (切れ字) or cutting word. These cutting words (for example, 'ya', 'kana') can make the exact meaning of a haiku difficult to grasp sometimes, but there is a useful glossary here.

* View - (character encoding: Japanese (Shift_JIS))

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