This dewdrop worldAccording to David G. Lanoue, "this haiku was written on the one-year anniversary of the death of Issa's firstborn child, the boy Sentarô. It has a one-word prescript: 'Grieving.' According to Buddhist teaching, life is as fleeting as a dewdrop and so one should not grow attached to the things of this world. Issa's response: 'and yet...'"
Is but a dewdrop world
And yet—
It is an ephemeral, transient world, and this we must accept. Even so, we suffer, and we grieve. For this, we are given equanimity, on the one hand, and compassion, on the other.
When I think of a dewdrop in Japanese Buddhism, I think of Dogen and his Moon in a Dewdrop ("Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water... The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass...".) But if Issa's dewdrop is related to Dogen's, it seems to be so only in a complicated way. (Or perhaps Dogen's dewdrop is related to the dewdrop in Japanese Buddhist imagery in a complicated way, or a way I don't yet understand.)
I found this poem by another Japanese poet (and artist and Rinzei Zen monk), Sengai, which reflects Issa's dewdrop nicely.
To what shall I compare this life of ours?
Even before I can say
it is like a lightning flash or a dewdrop
it is no more.
- Sengai (1750 - 1837)
This spare and beautiful painting of the moon echoes the "enso" calligraphy he would have often created:
The poem inscribed in the painting can be roughly translated this way:
Looking at the shadow it castsinto the great EmptinessI made a firm resolutionNight of autumn moon.
Dedicating the merit: May the fruits of this post benefit all beings, including, particularly, the earthquake victims in Haiti.
P.S. In Japanese, Issa's dewdrop haiku looks like this:
.「露の世は露の世ながらさりながら」
Tsuyu no yo wa
Tsuyu no ya nagara
Sarinagara
I think it's interesting to see a phrase-for-phrase translation:
[Tsuyu-no-yo / wa / tsuyu-no-yo / nagara / sari / nagara]
[Dew-world / as-for / dew-world / while-it-is / so-be / while-it-is]
「露の世は得心ながらさりながら」has small mistakes.
ReplyDelete「露の世は露の世ながらさりながら」is correct.
Un monde de rosée
ReplyDeleteOui, un monde de rosée
Et cependant.
The image of the highest form of consciousness within the Mahayana Buddhist tradition is that of a spider's web, spanning infinitely. The web is saturated with a rainbow-colored dew, each drop reflecting every other drop. This dewdrop world.
ReplyDeleteThank you. This is my favorite poem.
ReplyDeletePublic OK: Just finished washing lunch plate. Tiny soap bubbles along with the sadness inside of my for the loss of my wife 3 years ago, I remembered Issa's haiku.
ReplyDeleteTy most intimate haiku
ReplyDeleteYou should read about the metaphor 'Indra's Net', used in Buddhism to illustrate sunyata. As Seung Sahn put it: "The whole world is a single flower"
ReplyDeleteThankyou for your thoughtful piece.
"Even in Kyoto
When the cuccoo calls
I long for Kyoto"