September 18, 2012

Haiga 894 - Matsuo Basho haiku from Nozarashi Kiko

Haiku by Matsuo Basho. Artwork by myself

The 13th haiku from "Nozarashi Kiko"
Basho wrote:"I returned home at the beginning of Ninth Month. The Forgetting Grass by my mother’s room had withered with frost, and no trace of it remained. Everything from the past had changed. The temples of my brothers and sisters were white, wrinkles around their eyes. “We’re still alive!”—it was all we could say. My older brother opened a relic case and said, “Pay your respects to Mother’s white hair. Like Urashima with his jewelled box, your eyebrows have aged.” Then, for a time, we all wept."

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