Re: Santoka & Dreams(fwd)

Takashi Nonin (nonin@cc.matsuyama-u.ac.jp)
Thu, 30 Nov 1995 00:22:40 +0900 (JST)

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Dear Keiko,Rick,Wlod,Dhugal, and other foreign Haikuists;
As a devoted fan of Taneda Santoka, I've read with great interest
discussions on Japan's most eccentric roving poet, particularly, on one
of his numerous Haiku: the dragonfly-ku. As you are all aware, Santoka
was an alcoholic Haijin(which, incidentally, in Japanese has two
meanings with different characters: a Haiku poet and a person discarded
or given up) with a peripatetic habit.
May I suggest that an important "Particle"(-wa) is missing in the
Haiku you quoted?
All of you wrote:Ishi ni tombo ( ) mahiru no yume miru. However,
his original writing is Ishi ni tombo (wa) mahiru no yume miru. "-wa" is
often preceded by a subject and followed by an object and a transitive
verb(vt.) as in I love you.
Hence, this must be understood as follows:
Ishi ni (tomatta/tomatte) tombo wa mahiru no yume (wo) miru.
Rock, on,(perched/rested), dragonfly, midday, of, dream(noun),
dream(vt.).
Therefore, literally,
A dragon (perched/resting) on a rock is dreaming a midday
dream.
To most Japanese minds, this is the general interpretation of
this Haiku. Observe a dragonfly carefully, and you'll notice
that it has to land on something very often to take a wee rest
after a flight in the air. When it is at full rest, which is only
momentary, it lowers its wings further down--its vulnerable
position, and this is the good moment for us to catch it. See, in
actuality, a dragonfly is always alert and circumspect with its
spherical goggled eyes moving. But, in Japan, children learn that
a dragonfly is falling asleep when it is at rest on something.
To make all this clear, I referred to Santoka's anthology (Vols 1~7)
and others which had been asleep on my bookshelf.
According to Vol. 3, he wrote down this Haiku together with 11 others
in his diary on August 1, 1932 when he was travelling around Asa Town in
Yamaguchi Pref, west of Hiroshima.
The written order of his 12 Haiku shows the lapse of time or a
sequence of the scenes he saw along the way.
1st sight: He sees a pregnant woman looking up at the sky.
2nd sight: He sees a dragonfly resting on a rock, which he thinks, as
most other Japanese do, that it is dreaming a dream in broad daylight.
(nap)
3rd sight: He sees xanthic flowering vine (nozenkazura) as he is
walking from hamlet to hamlet dormant in profound middaay slumbers. (nap)
4th sight: He sees a grasshopper just awoken from its nap, with the
wind blowing. (nap)
5th sight: He sees green paddy fields with the wind blowing all over
when he is walking down the mountain pass. (villagescape)
6th sight: He sees a school. (cityscape)
7th sight: He sees a billboard. (ditto)
8th sight: He sees his friend---wind blowing. (ditto)
9th sight: He eats a watermelon at his friend's.
10th sight: He sees a falling star..
11th sight: He sees a light rain falling late at night.
12th sight; He scoops welling water in the starlit night.
--End of Haiku
His diary also describes his activities on Aug. 1.
He walked 12 km, went 12 km by train, met his close friend and others,
talked together till far into the night. He went begging as a monk in
one town for 2 hours in the morning and for 2 hours in another town in
the afternoon, with his feelings disturbed oftentimes by the women of
various types. There is no mention of his (thinking of) taking a nap on
that day, although he often liked lying down on the ground or among weeds
as he roamed and roved across the country.
There was a great fad of Santoka in the 70's in Japan and it's still
going on. It seems that many Japanese people cherish sort of aspirations
to live dead against the clockwork civilization.

What was he doing, the great god Pan,
Down in the reeds by the river?
Spreading ruin and scattering ban,
Splashing and paddling with hoofs of a goat,
And breaking the golden lilies afloat
With the dragonfly on the river. (1860)
---Elizabeth B. Browning

Santoka is the Haijin who loved Sake, friends, weeds, Shigure (autumn
rain), water, all of nature, etc., and walked his whole life, meeting
people from all walks of life, until he died at a humble cottage here in
Matsuyama. He had lots of good friends across the country. He loved
them and they loved him. Sake was always on the house for him when he
stayed or dropped by.

Happy is the house that shelters a friend.

Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature.
Everything is made of one hidden stuff. ---Emerson
Like Emerson also writes, "Hitch your wagon to a star," Santoka
hitched his monk robe to a crescent moon.
The structure of Japanese "Amae" can fully be found in Santoka and his
writings.