殘陽鏽彩照，櫻海叢中鬆寂寥，蒼翠領風騷。
芭蕉俳句 傅正明譯
落日金銷鏽斑駁， 櫻花紅褪血汪洋，
明朝寂寥青鬆健， 獨領風騷迎劍霜。
傅正明衍譯
原文
日は花に暮れてさびしやあすならう
hi wa hana ni kurete sabishi ya asunarō
with the sun darkening
on the blossoms, it is lonely -
a false cypress
Tr. Barnhill
The day is over with blossoms
And sad now, to see
The dark silouhette of asunaro-trees!
Tr. Oseko
After sunset with cherries in bloom -
In solitude
A hiba arborvitae.
Tr. Saito, Nelson
As the sun goes down
flowers go over - sadness
of the false cypress
- - - - - and
sabishisa ya hana no atari no asunaro
Loneliness -
amidst blossoms
a false cypress
In a haibun from the spring of 1688 Basho writes,
“ ‘Tomorrow I’ll become a cypress’. That’s what the old tree once said in the valley. Yesterday has gone by and tomorrow hasn’t arrived. So, whilst alive, I enjoy my wine and keep repeating to myself “tomorrow, tomorrow”, until I’m rebuked by the sages”.
Basho had in mind a poem of Po Chu I‘s entitled ‘Recommending Wine’.
A pile of gold after death
is not worth a cask at wine
while alive
Tr. and comment : Bill Wyatt
quote
Loneliness—.
Standing amid the blossoms,
A cypress tree.
(Ueda, Literary and Art Theories in Japan, 149)
This is a spring poem with a scene when cherry blossoms are in full bloom. But it is the green cypress tree in the middle of them that does not harmonize with the loveliness and gaiety of the scene. This cypress situated among the scene of blossoms is what brings about the atmosphere of loneliness. With this poem loneliness is not referring to a man's personal emotion anymore; it is instead describing an impersonal aura.
This ambience, this atmosphere of sabi, consists of a feeling of loneliness. This is not the sense of loneliness that Americans and other Westerners feel. This type of loneliness is something enjoyable to have sensed; it gives solace to the more sorrowful life.
source : Riley B. Irwin, 2007
Written in 1688, 元祿元年 Basho age 45.
Basho in Yoshino, the Cherry Blossom Mountain.
Basho spent the whole day looking at the blossoms and enjoying a drink, getting one day older . . .
This hokku has the cut marker YA at the end of line 2.
. Matsuo Basho 鬆尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .
