14
votes
Accepted
What constitutes a syllable?
The general method of counting in Japanese poetry is by a rhythmic unit known as the mora (morae or moras in plural). A mora is (essentially) the length of a single (full-sized) kana; so is a bit ...
- 3,707
12
votes
Accepted
Understanding Basho haikus in difficult calligraphy
The problem is that the writing is not only old and cursive, but using a lot of obsolete variant kana (hentaigana) that you'd no longer see in the modern documents.
Using hentaigana supported by ...
- 50.7k
11
votes
Accepted
Strange usage of を-Particle inside a 俳句 (haiku)
What does をり in the last line mean? I have a feeling that it is intentionally written in this way and not as おり (which comes from 居る)
There are two parts to this question, though it seems you ...
- 36.9k
9
votes
What does the へさうな mean in "逢へさうな"
This is not particle-へ.
Rather it is old kana orthography and さう sound-shifted to そう. In modern orthography it is
逢えそうな【あえそうな】
(Many monolingual dictionaries list old kana orthography of the ...
- 48k
7
votes
A lost haiku from the Heian period about the death of a child
I finally found it thanks to @broccoli forest's link in the comments.
The book says:
And when the Lady Kaga no Chiyo lost her husband she wrote, merely:
All things that seem
Are but
...
- 5,005
5
votes
Accepted
What are the meaning and the usage of 夏に入{い}る and 立夏?
立夏 is one of the 24 words called 二十四節気 (Solar term). It specifically refers to May 5 or May 6 (depending on the year; see the linked article). Despite its appearance, it's not a word that simply ...
- 307k
5
votes
Understanding Basho haikus in difficult calligraphy
As a complement to answer above, the old Japanese writing has thrown another monkey wrench into your way to conquering the Japanese literal world: Kuzushiji. So, you get to make sure aren't any of ...
- 377
4
votes
Word in haiku - sugara
In this context, すがら roughly means "throughout". Therefore, 夜{よ}もすがら means something like "throughout the night" or "all night long".
So, the subject of the haiku was walking around the pond the ...
- 8,045
4
votes
What constitutes a syllable?
Note that in Japanese poetry, there is a marked avoidance of moraic ん as well as Sino-Japanese lexicon and onbin, so the question is often irrelevant as all the syllables occurring are of form CV. ...
- 2,359
3
votes
What are the meaning and the usage of 夏に入{い}る and 立夏?
The other answer adequately describes the meaning of the expressions. I'll add something else here.
立夏
立夏 is also used in the context of weather forecasting, for example. From https://weathernews.jp/s/...
- 4,568
3
votes
Accepted
Meaning of 春うらら
実用日本語表現辞典 explains 春うらら as:
春うらら 春のうららかな様子。明るく朗らかで、のどかなさま。
明鏡国語辞典 explains うらら as:
うらら【麗ら】〘形容動詞〙うららか。『うららに照る日』『春のうららの隅田川〈花〉』
and うららか as:
うららか【麗らか】〘形容動詞〙①空が明るく晴れて...
- 65.3k
2
votes
Accepted
What type of clause is 「蛙飛び込む」 in the famous haiku by Basho?
Grammatically 蛙飛び込む modifies 水の音 as a relative clause. It's not that 水の音 modifies 蛙飛び込む. Japanese is an almost pure head-final language, which means a modifying part almost always comes before a ...
- 307k
2
votes
Accepted
Help translate handwritten paintings (calligraphy)
It is a traditional cursive text that reads:
水仙の
處を
得た(𛁠)り
庭の
隅
It seems to be meant as this haiku by 正岡子規:
水仙も処を得たり庭の隅
A narcissus finally finds its place — a corner of yard
but I have no idea ...
- 50.7k
2
votes
Accepted
Use of "かな" in these Bashō/Sora haiku
かな in modern colloquial Japanese means "I wonder" or "...no?", but this type of かな never appears in classical literature. When you see かな in haiku, it's almost always an ...
- 307k
2
votes
Is また燕木に帰るとや思い出す grammatically well formed?
I see two problems. The first is closely related to your concern. I don't think using と is a good idea if you want to use や. Conversely, if you use と, や wouldn't be necessary. This や is a sentence ...
- 4,568
1
vote
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible