WHC New Year's Eve Haibun Kukai

WHC HAIBUN KUKAI
  FIRST PLACE
SECOND PLACE
THIRD PLACE
SPECIAL AWARD
HONORABLE MENTION 1
HONORABLE MENTION 2
HONORABLE MENTION 3

 

  SPECIAL AWARD

THE GOOSE AND THE EGRET BATH
Takashi Nonin
(Matsuayama, Japan)

Wild geese come flying to Japan in autumn from the north, spend the wintertime in lakes or marshes across the country, and return to their northern abode at the advent of spring. The way a dozen of geese take flight in a variety of formation adds poetic charm to good old nature's scenes in Japan. The goose has often been written of in poetry by many people. Particularly, the honk of a goose arouses pity in those who hear.

flying through the curtain of night
wild geese are veiled and hard to sight -
how many nights will they spend
before they honk

(nubatamano / yo(ru) wataru kari wa / obooshiku/
ikuyo wo heteka / onoga na wo noru)

--author unknown (Man-yo-shu)

first honk of the goose
is heard in the autumn wind -
whose tidings does it carry around the neck?

(akikaze ni / hatsukarigane zo / kikoyu naru / taga tamazusa wo /
kakete kitsuran)

--Ki-no-Tomonori (Wakan-roei-shu) (circa 1013)

This poem of his derives from an ancient tale of China that a goose
was used as a message courier.

honking geese -
brother and sister
sharing the desk

(kari naku ya / hitotsu zukue ni / ani imoto)

--Ton Azumi (This ku is his masterpiece.)

rain has come
geese were honking low
last night

(ame to narinu / gansei sakuya / hikukarishi)

--Shiki

An old Japanese legend has it that in autumn when wild geese fly over to Japan from Siberia, they start holding small sticks in their beaks. The birds, when tired, put those pieces of wood on the sea and perch on them for rest. Before they land, they drop those sticks on the shore of Soto-ga-hama in Aomori Prefecture; and when they go back the following spring, they retrieve the sticks and head for north again.

Not landing in the province of Kii
lone goose keeps flying
through the night

(kinoji nimo / orizu yo wo yuku / kari hitotsu)

--Buson

sick goose
falls in the chilly night
sleeps away from home

(Yamu kari no / yosamu ni ochite / tabine kana)

--Basho


from today on
you're a Japanese goose -
have a good night's sleep

(kyoh kara wa / nihon no kari zo / rakuni neyo)

--Issa

After the geese departed for their northern territory, a good number of sticks had been left behind on the seashore. The sticks had apparently belonged to those birds that were captured by men or died during the winter.

Feeling pity for those dead and lost, the kind-hearted villagers and fishermen went to the shore to gather the abandoned sticks. They built a fire and made a bath for the repose of the souls of those geese. The bath was open to anyone.

wild goose bath
shall not be prepared
when the sea is rough

(ganburo ya / umi aruru hi wa / takanu nari)

--Kyoshi

A decade ago I had an occasion to visit the desolate geese shore. Only the bitter winds were howling from the ocean. Alas! the wild geese bath was no more.

kind villagers
desolate seashore
no more geese

--Takashi

The approach of the new year always reminds me of this heartwarming practice among humble folks way up north. Every year on the New Year's Eve, I make it a practice to go for a hot spring bath at Dogo, the Japan's oldest spa, in my city
of Matsuyama, the homeland of haiku. It is a ritual once in a year. The Dogo Hot Spring is believed to have been found by people who happened to see an egret dipping its injured leg in the spring. Here, too, like the wild geese mentioned above, a bird is related to a bath.

beats of taiko drums
icon egret on the rooftop
tells the time

--Takashi

On New Year's Day, the beginning of the 21st century, I woke up with the rising sun, although I had come back late from the hot spring bath. My skin is smooth and still warm from the effects of the hot bath. The temple bell of Ishiteji had been ringing out the old year and ringing in the new. If you want to hear all the 108 strikes of ding-dong in the chilly precinct, you must be prepared to catch cold. Only a few strikes were enough for me to feel the parting of the years.

On New Year's Eve the baths were specially open until 2 AM for hundreds of bathers who came for the first bath of the year. At the beats of taiko drums with 2001 candles lit, we proceeded into the bath. Free rice cake was also pounded and distributed
to us. "A Happy New Year!" We talked naked to one another in the hot misty bathroom.

an idea of haiku
pops up in my mind -
I get out of the first bath

--Takashi

One thing we should do after the bath is take care not to catch cold. I put on warm clothes, stepped into my car, and got back around two o'clock in the morning. A bottle of warmed sake, delicacies from the mountains and the sea, and my wife had been waiting for me.

on New Year's Day
everything looks fresh
even my wife