Travel, Traveler's Sky

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Travel, Traveler's Sky (tabi, tabi no sora)

***** Location: Worldwide
***** Season: Non-seasonal Topic
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation

Travel, travelling, who would not like this!

skies of travel, skies on a journey, tabi no sora 旅の空
sometimes translated as: Away From Home

or even
"Tabi no Sora e (Journey in the Air)",
"Trip in the Sky"


In some Japanese poems, the traveller is on his last journey to the Paradise in the West, where Amida Buddha welcomes the departed soul.



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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way

Autograph writing of Hiroshige's death-song:

Azumaji ni fude o nokoshite tabi no sora
Nishi no Mikuni no Nadokoro o min

Dropping my brush at Azuma (Eastern capital)
I go a journey to the honorable country in the west
(Buddhist Paradise is supposed to be in the West)
to view the wonderful sights there.



http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/hiroshige/watanabe/catalogue_298_307.htm

(Azuma is the old name for the Edo area.)

The Eastern City
I leave. And - without a brush
To see new scenes
I take the long road
That leads to the distant West.

Tr. by Temmei Rojin
Read more about Hiroshige !

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hitori ni mo aranu omoi wa naki hito mo
tabi no sora ni ya kanashikaruran

Not alone
Are we in our thoughts:
She who's gone, too,
On her journey to the skies,
Must be sunk in sorrow.

Fujiwara no Tameyori 藤原為頼 (?-?998)

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HAIKU

旅の空師走も二十九日哉
tabi no sora shiwasu mo nijuu ku nichi kana

a traveler's sky--
Twelfth Month
29th day

Issa, 1803

Tr. David Lanoue
Read a Comment here.

... ... ...

Isn't New Year's Eve, and New Year's day, even in old Japan, a time for celebrating with family and friends? Basho being on the road and Issa desiring to be on the road at that time of year could then be considered to be out-of-the-ordinary behavior.

In tribute to Basho's

toshi kurenu kasa kite waraji hakinagara

The year draws to its close:
I am still wearing
My kasa and straw sandals.

tr. Blyth

Buson wrote:

Bashoo satte sono nochi imada toshi kurezu

Since Basho left the world,
Not yet has
"The year drawn to its close."

tr. Blyth

Blyth then quotes a passage from Buson's writings:

"Rushing along in the road to fame and riches, drowning in the sea of desire, people torture their ephemeral selves. Especially on New Year's Eve their behavior is unspeakable. Despicably walking about knocking at doors, treating everyone with contempt unnecessarily, insanely vulgar behavior, and so on, is not decent. Even so, we foolish mortals can hardly escape from this world of dust and sin.

The year draws to its close;
I am still wearing
My kasa and straw sandals.

Reading this poem quietly in a corner of the room, my mind becomes clear; were I living Basho's life, how good it would be! The verse is uplifting to me, and it may be called a Great Rest-and-Enlightenment as far as I am concerned. Basho once gone, we have no master to teach us, whether the year begins or ends."

Quoted from Happy Haiku Forum

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toshi kurenu kasa kite waraji hakinagara
Matsuo Basho

another year is gone--
a traveler's hat on my head
straw sandals on my feet

tr. Ueda

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omoshiro ya / kotoshi no haru mo / tabi no sora

how amusing
this year in spring
the skies of a journey

--Basho, tr. and following note by Jane Reichhold:

According to Kyorai's book, Basho sent this hokku to him to indirectly inform him of the planned journey. The verse was published in 1791, with Ranku's postscript, in a collection of letters and haikai from Kyorai.

Quoted from Happy Haiku Forum

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The famous Death Haiku of Matsuo Basho 1694

旅に病んで夢は枯野をかけ廻る
tabi ni yande yume wa kareno o kakemeguru

falling ill while travelling -
in my dreams I am wandering
over withered fields
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

... ... ...

On a journey, ailing-
My dreams roam about
Over a withered moor

http://www.colinbeske.com/basho/works.html

... ... ...

Сразил меня недуг,
но в мечтах - я всё брожу
средь сухих болот.

Srazil menja nedug,
no v mechtakh - ja vsjo brazhu
sred' sukhikh balot.

Sick on a journey, I
am still wand'ring in my dreams
on the withered moors...

Sick on a journey
dreams roam about
сon a withered moor
(Tr. (© Haruo Shirane)

Russian translations by D.Smirnov
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/dmitrismirnov/DS140_6Haiku.html

... ... ...

Auf einer Reise, krank :
Meine Träume irren
über vertrocknete Felder
http://forum.biosfear.de/printthread.php?t=22514

Krank auf der Reise.
Meine Träume irren
übers verblühte Moor

Basho's Todestag. By Udo Wenzel

... ... ...

egy másik német
Auf einer Reise, krank:
Meine Träume irren
über vertrocknete Felder.

és egy harmadik német
Krank auf der Reise -
meine Träume irren noch
über ödes Land.

német (Das letzte Haiku)
Zu Ende das Wandern:
Mein Traum, auf dürrer Heide
huscht er umher.

francia
Malade en chemin
en reve encore je parcours
la lande desséchée

spanyol, két helyről: egyik, másik
Habiendo enfermado en el camino,
mis suenos merodean
por páramos yermos.

olasz
In viaggio, ammalato
i sogni vagano sospesi
in una landa desolata.

Read a few more versions here.
Hungarian Versions

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tsuki o kasa ni kite asoba ya tabi no sora

Kikusha

to wander with the moon
as a hat -
traveler's sky

tr. Michael Haldane

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katarau mo hakana no tomo ya tabi no sora

even talking
a fleeting friendship...
travelers' sky

Shoohaku
This is part of the Renga : Three poets at Yuyama (1491).
Tr. William Higginson


We share a few words,
But friendships are fleeting
Under skies of travel.

© JSTOR


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樅高し 雲ながれゆく 明日は旅

the fir tree stands tall
a cloud floats past
tomorrow I am on my way

Endoo Sootoku 遠藤宗徳

Sootoku was a Zen priest.
He went to a haiku meeting in Koriyama town, wrote this haiku, went home, took a bath, talked to his family about his funeral preparations, put on the white robes of a dead man and died that night quietly.


( I translated KUMO .a cloud. as singular, it could be plural too. But I see it as the author on his way. The last line could also read
tomorrow, my journey begins)


alto l'abete
fluttua una nube intorno
domani saro in viaggio
(Tr. Moussia, WHC)


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Tomorrow I sail for Brittany, looking forward (immensely) to that tabi no sora.

neither bed nor roof -
I breathe the cool
of a traveller's sky

ni lit ni toit...
je respire le frais
d'un ciel de voyage

noch bed noch dak -
ik adem in de koelte
van een reishemel

nek lit' nek tegment'...
spiri malvarmetecon
de vojaĝĉiel'

Norman Darlington
Translating Haiku Forum


Translation into Russian:

Ни кровати, ни крыши -
вдыхаю свежесть
неба путника

Остановился отдохнуть...
ни кровати, ни крыши -
вдыхаю свежесть неба.

Zhanna P. Rader

Translation into Romanian:

nici acoperis
nici pat;sa simti racoarea
unui cer de drumet

Cristian Mocanu


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wanderlust ...
a small snail
on the fresh green moss


..... wanderlust ..... snail ..... moss .....

　© Gabi Greve, June 2008


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Related words

***** Trekking , Trek (India, worldwide) trecking


***** Clear Autumn Sky (ten takashi) 　


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