The light of a candle (Yosa Buson)

Poets.org does not tell about Yosa Buson and I've never heard of him (her?) before this night. I wonder when Yosa lived and where. This is the only poem listed by him on the website. It's a haiku, which is a Japanese form of a strict number and patterns of syllables. 5, 7, 5 syllables.

This haiku does not follow that strict form. It is probably classified as such by poets.org because it is short, reads like haiku, and is concerned with nature. Of course, this is a translated poem. The original may very well have been in the proper syllabic counts.

What I like about this poem is that the last line throws you. The first two are extremely easy to understand, but that last takes a bit. I like that in the last line the word "springs" could have two meanings. It could be the verb, meaning jumps, or it could be the noun, being a season. I like it best as a verb, since it describes the action of passing on a flame from candle to candle.

Maybe it's the noun, though. In that case, I could see the transfer of fire being a birth of flame, a reiteration of fire. Birth and newcomings are very springlike.

Clever, clever. I like haiku for how condensed they are. It takes many paragraphs to (poorly) describe what happens in three lines of poetry. That's true great art.

Favorite line: "spring twilight"