閑さや 岩にしみ入 蝉の声 shizukasa ya iwa ni shimiiru semi no koe bashō 芭蕉 Stillness: the cicada's voice seeps into the rocks

閑さや岩にしみ入蝉の声 (shizukasa ya iwa ni shimiiru semi no koe): stillness: the cicada's voice seeps into the rocks.

The line stops on the stillness, and the cicada's voice soaks into the rock. The デジタル大辞泉 defines しみいる as seeping deep into a thing, and also deep into the heart. Japanese does not mark the number, so the voice may be one cicada's or many.

閑さや … しみ入 and 閑かさや … しみ入る are two spellings of one verse, read the same way. Eri's block and semi-cursive scrolls write 閑かさや … しみ入る, and her cursive and design scrolls write 閑さや … しみ入.

Sora's notebook of the journey's verses has an earlier form, 山寺や石にしみつく蟬の聲: the mountain temple: sticking to the stones, the cicada's voice. Two anthologies print さびしさや岩にしみ込蟬のこゑ: loneliness: soaking into the rocks, the cicada's voice. Haruo Shirane reads the change of verb as the point: the voice passes, as if untouched, deep into the rocks.

Which cicada the verse hears was argued in print from 1924 to 1932. Saitō Mokichi had written, almost as a certainty, that it was the large abura-zemi. Komiya Toyotaka held for the small niinii-zemi, whose voice runs on like a thread. In 1930 schoolchildren collected the mountain's cicadas, and the niinii-zemi were the great majority. In 1932 Mokichi printed that Komiya's conclusion was the right one, with one reservation: zoologically, as the specimens show, the abura-zemi cannot be ruled out absolutely; but in literature we may rule it out. The matter was not closed for everyone, though the 世界大百科事典 today names the niinii-zemi as the cicada of the verse.

English has to choose the number, and the translators differ. Miyamori Asatarō's version of 1932 has The cicadas' voices. R. H. Blyth's of 1942 has the plural too, with a note: The singular would bring the individual cicada too much to the foreground of the mind. Robert Hass, in 1994, has the cicada's cry.

Matsuo Bashō, at the temple of Risshakuji (Yamadera) in Dewa, on his journey of 1689, in his travel journal 『おくのほそ道』; the first print, of 1702, writes 閑さや … しみ入, with no る, and a 1960 collation reports the same in both manuscripts in his scribe Soryū's hand.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 閑さや岩にしみ入蝉の声.

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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