Bashō

Dewdrops, let me cleanse
in your brief sweet waters
these dark hands of life.

This is my favourite haiku poem, written by a master of the form — the 17th-century Japanese poet Bashō, born in Kyoto as Matsuo Kinsaku. I am reminded of his poem whenever I gaze upon water droplets on foliage, as in this image of dewdrops clinging to the leaves of Solomon’s seal.

Soon after his birth, Japan closed its borders, creating an atmosphere of isolation that saw the country’s native culture flourish. It was in this milieu that Bashō began writing poetry early in his life, focusing on the traditional poetic verse. During his lifetime poets began using the meter of hokku, the opening verse of a renga, as a model for small poems. It is this form of three unrhymed lines of five, seven and five syllables that eventually became know as haiku.

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