稲妻に さとらぬ人の 貴さよ inazuma ni satoranu hito no tattosa yo bashō 芭蕉 How admirable, to see lightning, and not think life is fleeting

How admirable,
to see lightning,
and not think life is fleeting ^[1]

稲妻にさとらぬ人の貴さよ (inazuma ni satoranu hito no tattosa yo): how admirable, the person the lightning does not enlighten.

Bashō's verse admires the person who sees lightning and does not take the flash for enlightenment. Lightning is one of Buddhism's oldest pictures of how quickly everything passes. A fashionable Zen of Bashō's day felt a small thrill of insight at every flash, and called the thrill awakening. The verse praises the one who lets lightning be lightning. Bashō meant it for his own students, whose easy Zen he was scolding. Its readers agree on that much and differ only in flavor. Some hear a rebuke to shallow Zen. Some hear a plain statement that life is life and lightning is lightning, and some a wariness of enlightenment itself. Which you hear is yours.

The last word, 貴さよ, is read tattosa yo. That is how Bashō's own letter spells it and how the modern complete editions print it; translators working from the printed text give tōtosa yo.

References:

^[1] Translation by Robert Hass, The Essential Haiku (Ecco, 1994), p. 24.

Bashō's own letter to Kyokusui, dated the sixth day of the ninth month of Genroku 3 (1690) and written at Gichū-ji on Lake Biwa, records the verse in the poet's own hand, under a Zen teacher's warning he sets down there.

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Eri Takase was born and raised in Osaka, Japan, and holds the rank of Shihan, the highest rank in Japanese calligraphy, from the Bokuteki-kai and the Bunka-shodo. About Master Takase