chaser

Tsuika - Chaser

Tsuika literally means addition. This short sequence was attached to the very end of the collection Fuyu no hi 冬の日, or Winter Days, published in 1684. The reader might know the collection by the sequence that starts with

mad verse:
In withering winds how I must resemble Chikusai!
狂句こがらしの身は竹斎に似たる哉

This and the other renku in the collection were all written in Nagoya, with a group of haikai poets under the leadership of Kakei with Bashō as a visiting poet. The reader may also know Tokoku from Bashō's Oi no Kobumi (Backpack Notes.)

CHASER:

Dear me, Look!    hailstones pelting    the oxen                                     Uritsu [1]

        A cask of wine by the fire    pines on a withered plain                    Kakei

Rush cutter:    work clothes    and a topknot                                        Jūgo [2]

        Decked in a cypress hat    for the shrine    morning dew                 Tokoku

A silver coin    for clams    moon on the sea                                           Bashō

        To the left a great bridge,    and beyond, Mount Gifu                     Yasui [3]

[1] hailstones: arare, as Higginson points out, are not really hailstones (hyō, a summer topic), but snow pellets, which are a winter topic.
[2] topknot: chasen-gami 茶筅髪, literally, “tea whisk hair.” It actually looks like this except that the poor laborer in this poem would probably not have his pate shaven.
[3] Mount Gifu lies outside the city of Nagoya.

The original text:

追加

いかに見よと難面うしをうつ霰　　　羽笠

　樽火にあぶるかれはらの松　　　　荷兮

とくさ苅下着に髪をちやせんして　　重五

　檜傘に宮をやつす朝露　　　　　　杜國

銀に蛤かはん月は海　　　　　　　　芭蕉

　ひだりに橋をすかす岐阜山　　　　埜水

All translations �2007 Sean Price [email protected]