遅き日の つもりて遠き 昔かな osoki hi no tsumorite tōki mukashi kana buson 蕪村 The long slow days of spring piling up, so far away the past

The long slow days of spring
piling up, so far away
the past ^[1]

遅き日のつもりて遠き昔かな (osoki hi no tsumorite tōki mukashi kana): the long slow days piling up, and how far away the past.

Yosa Buson's verse is about a spring day so long that it makes the years visible. The slow days pile up like snow, and the past feels very far away. The feeling is longing for the past, and readers have heard in it time that is felt rather than counted. Some hear bitterness in its sounds, and some hear a dream.

In the Japanese, 遅き日 is the long day of late spring, when the sun sets late; it is the season word. つもりて is piling up, said of days as of snow. One of the hands writes 昔, the past, in kana, as むかし.

References:

^[1] After Haruo Shirane, Early Modern Japanese Literature (Columbia University Press, 2002), p. 545.

The verse is Buson's, first printed in 1784 in his 蕪村句集 under the headnote 懐旧, longing for the past; the 1992 Kōdansha complete works dates it to 1775 from his own verse-book.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 遅き日のつもりて遠き昔かな.

Your scroll is brushed when you order it and completed within 1 to 3 business days. It ships by USPS Priority Mail from Master Takase's studio in Washington State, boxed and ready to hang, with a printed page giving the art's English, romaji and Japanese.

Sending it as a gift? Add your message at checkout and we will include it.

Shipping is calculated at checkout from your address; within the United States it is $13 to $23. We ship worldwide, and any import charges for your country are shown at checkout before you pay.

Every order is covered by our 30-day money-back guarantee. If your scroll arrives damaged, or we made an error, we replace it or refund you in full, including shipping. Refund policy

Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase brushes your scroll by hand when you order it. Each scroll bears her red seal, 英利, and her signature.

The scrolls are 12 1/4" W × 43" H (31 × 109 cm), with woven damask borders and layered Japanese paper, designed to last generations. The scrolls themselves are made by a scroll maker in Gifu, Japan, and we have worked with them for over two decades.

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