Lady Sao (10th of September, 2012)
from Lady Sao...
in the spring to come
it will not be me
who meets her again
Shiki, translated by Janine Beichman
According to Janine Beichman, "Masaoka Shiki, His Life and Works", Cheng and Tsui Company, Boston, 2002,
Lady Sao (Saogami) is a (Shinto?) goddess of spring. It appears that the names Sahohime, Saohime, Sao-hime,
princess Saho-hime, are more common.
>> Shiki (1867 - 1902) is one of four great haiku
masters (Basho, Buson, Issa i Shiki). He died when he was thirty five from tuberculosis which affected his spine
so that he was immobile during last years of his life - in one of Shiki's best known haiku poems (below),
the immobility is almost painfully communicated to the reader:
I ask how high
the snow is
Shiki
The foreseeing of (soon) death is a frequent motif in his poetry, obvious also in the Lady Sao waka/tanka.
Shiki suffered from tuberculosis better part of his short life. In his 21st year he started coughing blood,
which was the reason he took the pen-name Shiki, which denotes the Japanese cuckoo (hototogisu). Namely, there
is a legend in Japan which says that hototogisu sings with such dedication and passion, that it coughs
blood in the end.
Tuberculosis was frequent and unhappy motivation of the poets. The sense of time which runs, and coldness and imminence of death. I thought of Croatian poet Đuro Sudeta (1903 - 1927), who also suffered from and died of tuberculosis:
Too soon you set, Sun,
white joy of mine,
roads are full of birds
and red colored vine.
In the forests, in the heights
I sent the dreams of mine,
they didn't even left
the silent courts of mine.
And you already set, sink
and black veils you cast.
Where do you hurry so,
where do you walk so fast?
Đuro Sudeta, translated to English by Antonio Šiber
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Last updated on 10th of September 2012.