梅遠近南すべく北すべく ume ochikochi minami subeku kita subeku Buson - Plum blossoms everywhere, I should go south, I should go north

Yosa Buson's verse is a walk in early spring, with plum in bloom all around. South would be good, and north would be good, so any road will do. The sentence stops in the air, and the rest is left unsaid. Readers have filled it in the same way: either way, as the heart pleases.

In the Japanese, 遠近, ochikochi, means here and there, far and near. 南すべく and 北すべく are to go south and to go north, each with べく, would do. Nothing follows them, so the verse ends on an open choice.

The English is Timothy L. Jackowski's, made for Takase Studios.

The verse is Buson's: he wrote it out under the headnote 野徑梅, plum along the field paths, in a letter to his pupil 霞夫 that a 1925 edition dates provisionally to 1777, and it was first printed in his 蕪村句集 of 1784.

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