Ma 間

水鳥 · mizutori, water birds. A winter season word. The name for all the birds that live on or by the water. One guide to season words says they are seen most in winter, and counts ducks, wild geese, swans and grebes among them. Buson’s poem, word by word, below. #haiku #poetry #mizutori #winter

夏草 · natsukusa, summer grass. A summer season word. Weeds and wild grasses grow thick and come back however often they are pulled. A love poem in the Man’yōshū likens love grown thick to summer grass, cut and growing back. Bashō’s poem, word by word, below. #haiku #poetry #natsukusa #summer

枯野 · kareno, withered field. A winter season word. Grass and trees have withered through. One guide to season words sees the field hushed and bare, with sun, rain and wind passing over it, and waiting for the buds of spring. Bashō’s poem, word by word, below. #haiku #poetry #kareno #winter

秋の暮 · aki no kure, autumn dusk. An autumn season word. Its two old senses, an evening in autumn and the end of autumn, can sound together. In Sei Shōnagon’s Pillow Book, autumn is the evening, and the evening has its crows. Bashō’s poem, word by word, below. #haiku #poetry #akinokure #autumn

天の川 · ama no gawa, the Milky Way. An autumn season word. Early in the season the river of heaven stands highest and shines brightest. Bashō ends a poem on it: a rough sea, Sado, the river of heaven. A rough sea · Bashō → ma-haiku.com/masters/a-rough-sea-basho #haiku #poetry #amanogawa #autumn

月見 · tsukimi, moon-viewing. An autumn season word. Under the mid-autumn full moon, the harvest moon, people set out pampas grass and rice dumplings, and simply watch. One word, and the poem holds the whole night. The season word → ma-haiku.com/learn #haiku #poetry #tsukimi #autumn

Ill on my journey — my dreams go wandering on over withered fields Matsuo Bashō, 1694 · English version by Ma, 5·7·5 Winter in Ma → ma-haiku.com/winter #haiku #poetry #basho #winter

An ancient pond! With a sound from the water Of the frog as it plunges in. Matsuo Bashō, 1686 · trans. W. G. Aston (1899) Spring in Ma → ma-haiku.com/spring #haiku #poetry #basho #spring

On a withered branch A crow is sitting This autumn eve. Matsuo Bashō, c.1680 · trans. W. G. Aston (1899) Autumn in Ma → ma-haiku.com/autumn #haiku #poetry #basho #autumn

間 · ma, the space between. In a haiku it is the pause after the image: what the poet leaves unsaid, on purpose. The poem finishes there, in you, a beat late. Learn the haiku → ma-haiku.com/faq #haiku #poetry #wabisabi #japaneseaesthetics