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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

梅遠近南すべく北すべく (ume ochikochi minami subeku kita subeku) is Buson's plum blossoms here and there, so that south would do and north would do. He wrote it in a letter to a pupil, and it was printed in his 蕪村句集 of 1784. This study follows the old Chinese saying its second half repeats, the Meiji argument over its reading, and its English from 1952.

Japanese Scroll of Buson - Plum blossoms everywhere, I should go south, I should go north (ume ochikochi minami subeku kita subeku) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Buson - Plum blossoms everywhere, I should go south, I should go north梅遠近南すべく北すべくume ochikochi minami subeku kita subeku

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

梅遠近南すべく北すべく, plum blossoms here and there; south would do, and north would do, is Buson's: he wrote it out for his pupil 霞夫 in a letter under the headnote 野徑梅, plum along the field paths, which the 1925 edition of his works dates provisionally to 1777, and it was first printed in his 蕪村句集 of 1784, among the spring plum verses. Its second half is the Japanese reading of an old Chinese saying, 可以南可以北, one could go south, one could go north, which in the 淮南子 makes the philosopher Yang Zhu weep at a fork in the road. Shiki's circle argued, before 1902, over how to read its first word and whether the poet is choosing between two places; the grammarians from 1908 made it their example of a sentence that stops in the air; and every reader who glosses it hears plenty, not grief: plum everywhere, so any road is good. It entered English in Blyth's 1952 rendering, and Sawa and Shiffert in 1978 and Hass in 1994 followed.

Overview

The text. The scroll carries 梅遠近南すべく北すべく, and the witnesses write one text. The 蕪村句集 of 1784 writes 梅遠近, in cursive kanji, a space, then 南すへく北すへく with the kana unmarked, as its kana are throughout [1]; Buson's letter, as the 1925 edition prints it, writes the same, under 野徑梅 [2]; the Kyoto gazetteer of 1799 writes it in one column with the poet's name after it [3]. Later books add the dakuten, すべく, and one 1940 school reader spells the first word out in kana, 梅をちこち [4]. One 1934 anthology prints 梅園を, the plum garden, on the leaf, a misprint or an editor's change that stands against every other witness [5]. The four scroll designs brush 梅遠近 / 南すべく北すべく, the source's text with modern dakuten.

How it is read. Two words have been read two ways. 遠近 is をちこち, ochikochi, the old native word for here and there: so 渡部霞江 in 1897 [6], Shiki in the 蕪村句集講義 [7], 潁原退蔵 in 1925 [2], and the 1886 kanbun gloss ウメヲチコチ [8]. 内藤鳴雪, in the same 講義 session, proposed reading it the Chinese way, enkin, in the spirit of Chinese verse, and Shiki answered that ochikochi was better [7]. 南 is minami in the 1886 gloss, ミナミスベク [8], and 寒川鼠骨 in 1905 insisted the verse be read in phrases of six, six and five, 梅をちこち · 南すべく · 北すべく, which counts minami [9]. Three editors read it minnami, the drawn-out form of the word: 渡部霞江 and 阿心庵雪人 in 1897 and 長谷川零余子 in 1921 [6][10][11]. With minami the verse runs six, six, five, seventeen in all; with minnami the middle phrase is seven.

The words. 遠近 · をちこち is here and there, far and near, a word as old as the 万葉集, written with the two Chinese characters for far and near [12]. 南すべく · 北すべく is 南す and 北す, to go south, to go north, each with べく, the continuative form of べし, may, would do, and nothing after: the sentence hangs. The grammarian 山田孝雄 in 1908 gave the verse as his example of a predicate that breaks off its statement and so holds a lingering feeling [13]. 高木武 in 1923 printed it with the missing words in brackets, 梅遠近(咲キタリ)南すべく北すべく(何方ニテモ心ノマヽナリ), plum (is in bloom) far and near; south would do, north would do (either way, as the heart pleases) [14], and the 1935 児童百科大辞典 set it under 断叙法, the truncated statement, with the same close supplied [15]. As words the line says: Plum, far and near; one could go south, one could go north.

The phrase. 南すべく北すべく is older than the verse. It is how Japanese readers had long read a line of the 淮南子: 楊子見逵路而哭之，為其可以南可以北, Yang Zhu saw a fork in the road and wept, because from it one could go south and one could go north, set beside Mozi weeping over white silk, because it could be dyed yellow or black [16]. Japanese reference books of the Meiji and Taishō years print it in that reading, 其の以て南すべく以て北すべきが爲なり [17], and the moralist 松村介石 in 1899 wrote of schooling as the place where a life may go 南すべく北すべく朱すべく黑すべく, south or north, red or black, which is the saying, silk and all, and not Buson's verse [18]. 中根香亭 in 1886 wrote Buson's line back into Chinese as 梅遠近可南可北, the saying's own words [8].

The sense. Every reader who glosses the verse hears plenty. In Shiki's circle, 鳴雪 read it as a walk out to the country to look for plum, blossom here and there, so it is fine to face south and fine to go north; Shiki asked whether it meant choosing between two plum places in two directions, as a Tokyo man might wonder whether to go to Komukai or to Kameido, and 鳴雪 answered that it was rather one stretch of country with many places in it; Shiki agreed, adding only that the blossoms need not all be in sight at once [7]. The 1799 gazetteer set the verse at a plum valley near Fushimi [3]; 沼波瓊音 in 1909 filed it under のどか, the leisurely spring mood [19]; 寒川鼠骨 in 1914 said it was famous among poets for its unusual rhythm, with none of the usual ya, keri or kana [20]; the grammarians supplied either way, as the heart pleases [14][15]. 萩原朔太郎 in 1936 heard early spring, the cold not yet gone, and set the verse among those where Buson learned from Chinese verse its straight, sinewy statement [21]. Blyth in 1952 heard a feeling of the newness of spring, and yet of the luxury, the bounty, the universality of the season; in truth, anywhere will do [22]. No reader opened hears Yang Zhu's grief in it.

The historical record

1777, probably. Buson's letter to 霞夫. A letter dated 正月晦日, the last day of the first month, signed 蕪村 and addressed to 霞夫, explains at length the verse 水にちりて花なくなりぬ崖の梅 and then writes out 野徑梅 / 梅遠近南すへく北すへく and 梅かゝやひそかにおもき裘, with there are others, but I cannot call them to mind [2]. 潁原退蔵, printing it in 1925, dates it provisionally to 1777 (安永六年): the letter speaks of the death of the pupil 有橘, whom a letter of 1776 shows alive and whose name is missing from Buson's spring anthology of 1777 [2]. In his notes to the verse he records that a letter gives it the headnote 野徑梅 and that 遠近 is read をちこち [2].

1784. 蕪村句集, 前編 巻之上 春之部, edited by 几董. 梅遠近 南すへく北すへく, among the plum verses, after 小豆賣小家の梅のつぼみがち and before the headnote 早春 that belongs to the next verse; no headnote of its own [1]. The first print, the year after Buson's death.

1799. Akisato Ritō 秋里籬島, 都林泉名勝図会, the illustrated gazetteer of Kyoto's gardens. Under 伏見山 and its 梅溪, after a run of Chinese-style plum verses by 梅華仙, 六如 and others, the column 梅遠近南すへく北すへく 蕪村 closes the leaf [3]. 大野洒竹's life of Buson in 1897 still places the verse there, at the plum valley of Fushimi [23].

1886. Nakane Kōtei 中根香亭, 香亭雅談. In a kanbun note on Buson as painter and poet: 其如梅遠近可南可北句、力量氣格、足以爲林處士後繼焉, a verse like 梅遠近可南可北 has strength and bearing enough to make him heir to the recluse Lin, 林和靖, the Song poet of plum blossom; the line glossed ウメヲチコチ ミナミスベク キタスベク [8].

1897. Watanabe Kakō 渡部霞江, 夜半亭蕪村句解の緒; 阿心庵雪人, 校註 蕪村全集; Ōno Shachiku, 与謝蕪村. 渡部: 梅をちこち、みんなみすへく、北すへく、とよむなり、南はみなみるの義也依て延す時はみんなみといふ, read it ume ochikochi, minnami subeku, kita subeku; 南 drawn out is minnami [6]; 阿心庵: 〔南〕ミンナミ, 南の音便也 [10]; 洒竹, beside the Fushimi placing, gives it with 菜の花や月は東に日は西に as a verse that paints the two poles of direction [23].

1897 and after. Masaoka Shiki, 俳人蕪村. Among Buson's verses 其外調子のいたく異なりたる者あり, others whose rhythm is very unusual, the first given is this one [24].

By 1902. 蕪村句集講義, the reading sessions of Shiki's circle. The exchange between 鳴雪 and Shiki given above, on the reading of 遠近 and on one place or two [7]. Shiki took part, so the session is before his death in 1902; it is read in the 1911 edition.

1905 and 1914. Samukawa Sokotsu 寒川鼠骨, 初学自修俳句案内 and 俳家必読著名俳句評釈. 1905: the verse is seventeen morae, but split as five, seven, five it is not good; it must be read 梅をちこち · 南すべく · 北すべく, six, six, five [9]. 1914: 梅の句として調子の變つてゐる所から俳人には有名である, famous among poets as a plum verse with an unusual rhythm, made with none of the ya, keri, kana the poets of the day relied on [20].

1908. Yamada Yoshio 山田孝雄, 日本文法論. 用言の活用にて述格に立てるものには、又その陳述を中止して餘情を含ましむるものあり, among predicates there are those that break off their statement and so hold a lingering feeling; the example, 梅遠近南すべく北すべく [13].

1909, 1913. Numanami Keion, 俳句の作り方; Ōmachi Keigetsu 大町桂月, 文章大辞林. Numanami's list of plum verses that carry のどか, beside 梅が香にのつと日の出る山路哉 [19]; Keigetsu's dictionary of prose with the verse and (蕪村) after it [25].

1921. Hasegawa Reiyoshi 長谷川零余子, 校註解釈 蕪村俳句全集. 「南すべく」みんなみすべく也 [11].

1923. Takagi Takeshi 高木武, 最新国文解釈の研究. The verse as an example of words left out, the missing words bracketed: (咲キタリ) after 梅遠近 and (何方ニテモ心ノマヽナリ) after the close [14].

1925. 蕪村三千句; Handa Ryōhei 半田良平, 蕪村俳句全集 季題別; Ebara Taizō 潁原退蔵, 蕪村全集. The first two print the verse [26]; Handa prints it last of seventeen 句集 plum verses and closes them (右十七句、句集) [27]; 潁原 prints the letter and the headnote 野徑梅 [2].

1931, 1934, 1935. A school entrance examination; an anthology by season; Fujii Shiei 藤井紫影, 名家俳句集. The examination sets the verse for interpretation [28]; the 1934 anthology prints 梅園を南すべく北すべく 蕪村 [5]; Fujii prints the received text inside his 蕪村句集 section without a note [29]. A 1934 collection of commentary observes that Buson's directions are usually real ones, but that this verse inherits the vague sense of the Chinese poets' east, west, south and north [30].

1935. Obara Kuniyoshi 小原国芳 (ed.), 児童百科大辞典, the volume 文藝の基礎學, under (ク) 断叙法. Two examples: the opening of the 枕草子, 春は曙…, where をかし is left out after each season, and 梅遠近南すべく北すべく(蕪村)これなどでも、終りに「何方にても心のまゝなり」とでも言つたやうな語句が略されてゐるのである, here too a phrase like "either way, as the heart pleases" is left out at the end [15].

1936. Hagiwara Sakutarō 萩原朔太郎, 郷愁の詩人与謝蕪村. The verse calls up early spring, the cold not yet gone, and stands with the verses in which Buson's statement is straight and sinewy, learned from Chinese verse [21].

1940. 慶応義塾大学 (ed.), 国語教程, a reader. 梅をちこち南すべく北すべく, second on a page of famous verses, after 涼しや朝草門に荷ひこむ, the pair signed 蕪村 beneath [4].

The dictionaries today. The 日本国語大辞典 at kotobank gives をちこち 【遠近】, here and there, with its first example from the 万葉集 [12]; kotobank's entry for 与謝蕪村 does not quote the verse [31].

The attribution. Buson's, from his own hand and his own book. He wrote it out for 霞夫 in the letter [2]; 几董 printed it in the 句集 of 1784, from the poet's late selection [1]; every later witness that names a poet names him. The composition is dated only by the letter, and the letter only provisionally, by 潁原 in 1925 [2].

What is not a source. The 1934 梅園を is one book's and stands against the 句集's 遠近 [5][1]. The 1899 essay is a witness to the 淮南子 saying, not to the poem [18].

The verse in English

1952. R. H. Blyth, Haiku, volume 4, Hokuseido Press, Preface, page vi (the Preface is dated Tokyo, 3 December 1951). 梅遠近南すべく北すべく, then Plum-blossoms here and there, / It is good to go north, / Good to go south, as another example of the delicacy of the haiku poet … where the feeling is quite a nameless one, without words to express it in any language, yet expressed, faultlessly and unequivocally, and the sentence on the bounty of the season quoted above [22]. Blyth sets it after a verse of 素堂 and before Buson's 菜の花や法師が宿は訪はで過ぎ. The romaji alone is in the volume's Appendix I.

1978. Yuki Sawa and Edith Marcombe Shiffert, Haiku Master Buson, page 62 (read in the White Pine Press printing of 2007). Plum flowers far and near. / Shall I go to the south? / Shall I go north?, romaji Ume ochi-kochi minami subeku kita subeku, in a run of plum verses [32]. This rendering keeps the two すべく as two questions.

1994. Robert Hass, The Essential Haiku, page 117. Plum blossoms here and there— / it's good to go north, / good to go south, Blyth's three lines with his It is contracted [33].

1994. R. H. Blyth, The Genius of Haiku, British Haiku Society and Hokuseido Press, pages 92–93. The 1952 Preface reprinted, with the same rendering and comment [34].

A reading

I read the verse as every glossing reader has, and as its grammar reads it: plum everywhere, so both roads are good, and the sentence can stop in the air. What I add is the saying under its second half. For a reader who knew the 淮南子, and 中根香亭 in 1886 wrote the line in its very words, 南すべく北すべく was the fork in the road that made Yang Zhu weep, because from it a man could go either way. Buson puts plum at every turn and the fork loses its grief: the same words that were a philosopher's lament are a walker's ease. No commentary opened makes this link, and I sign it as my own; the line reads the same without it, and a little deeper with it.

References

  1. 『蕪村句集』前編 巻之上 春之部 (几董 編, 1784). National Institute of Japanese Literature, biblio 300106341, canvas 7, right page, column 2.
  2. 潁原退蔵 編『蕪村全集』, 1925: 書簡篇, the letter to 霞夫, printed pages 713–714, National Diet Library pid 1018320, scans 386–387, https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1018320/1/387; 發句篇, the note on 梅遠近, scan 49, https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1018320/1/49
  3. 秋里籬島『都林泉名勝図会』, 1799, 伏見山 梅溪. National Diet Library pid 9369511, scan 181. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/9369511/1/181
  4. 慶応義塾大学 編『国語教程』, 1940, printed pages 36–37. National Diet Library pid 1056675, scan 24. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1056675/1/24
  5. 若月紫蘭『紫蘭句集』, 新月社, 1934, printed page 4. National Diet Library pid 1056180, scan 112. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1056180/1/112
  6. 渡部霞江『夜半亭蕪村句解の緒』, 明倫社, 1897. National Diet Library pid 875911, scan 7. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/875911/1/7
  7. 内藤鳴雪 等『蕪村句集講義』, 1911 edition, 春之部. National Diet Library pid 875705, scan 21. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/875705/1/21
  8. 中根淑『香亭雅談』, 1886. National Diet Library pid 893697, scan 41. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/893697/1/41
  9. 寒川鼠骨 編『初学自修俳句案内』, 1905. National Diet Library pid 875585, scan 24. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/875585/1/24
  10. 阿心庵雪人 編『校註 蕪村全集』, 1897. National Diet Library pid 875713, scan 8. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/875713/1/8
  11. 長谷川零余子 編『校註解釈 蕪村俳句全集』, 1921. National Diet Library pid 968346, scan 27. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/968346/1/27
  12. 「遠近」 (日本国語大辞典, おち‐こち), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/遠近
  13. 山田孝雄『日本文法論』, 1908. National Diet Library pid 992499, scan 449. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/992499/1/449
  14. 高木武『最新国文解釈の研究』, 1923. National Diet Library pid 943243, scan 21. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/943243/1/21
  15. 小原国芳 編『児童百科大辞典』, 文藝の基礎學, 1935, printed page 197. National Diet Library pid 1720361, scan 114. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1720361/1/114
  16. 『淮南子』說林訓, at Chinese Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/淮南子/說林訓
  17. 畠山健 編『作文新辞林』, 1905, 岐に哭き練に泣く. National Diet Library pid 862905, scan 231. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/862905/1/231
  18. 松村介石『学生の前途』, 警醒社, 1899. National Diet Library pid 813462, scan 4. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/813462/1/4
  19. 沼波瓊音『俳句の作り方』, 文成社, 1909. National Diet Library pid 994608, scan 22. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/994608/1/22
  20. 寒川鼠骨『俳家必読著名俳句評釈』, 1914. National Diet Library pid 917371, scan 29. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/917371/1/29
  21. 萩原朔太郎『郷愁の詩人与謝蕪村』, 1936, read in the 1946 printing. National Diet Library pid 1128410, scans 22–23. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1128410/1/22
  22. R. H. Blyth, Haiku, vol. 4, Hokuseido Press, Tokyo, 1952, Preface, p. vi.
  23. 大野洒竹『与謝蕪村』, 1897. National Diet Library pid 875927, scans 66 and 75. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/875927/1/66
  24. 正岡子規「俳人蕪村」, in 高浜清 編『俳諧大要・俳人蕪村・俳句問答・俳句の四年間』, 1913. National Diet Library pid 947487, scan 147. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/947487/1/147
  25. 大町桂月『文章大辞林』, 至誠堂, 1913, 四季の部 春 梅. National Diet Library pid 951697, scan 34. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/951697/1/34
  26. 俳禅舎主人 編『蕪村三千句』, 俳禅舎, 1925, 春 草庵. National Diet Library pid 924926, scan 15. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/924926/1/15
  27. 半田良平 編『蕪村俳句全集 季題別』, 紅玉堂, 1925, printed page 20. National Diet Library pid 964212, scan 17. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/964212/1/17
  28. 『高等学校・専門諸学校入学試験問題全集』, 山海堂, 1931, 東京音楽学校 国語. National Diet Library pid 1457666, scan 121. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1457666/1/121
  29. 藤井紫影 校『名家俳句集』, 有朋堂, 1935, 蕪村句集 section. National Diet Library pid 1259717, scan 220. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1259717/1/220
  30. 『俳句評釈選集』, 1934. National Diet Library pid 1148254, scan 144. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1148254/1/144
  31. 「与謝蕪村」, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/与謝蕪村
  32. Yuki Sawa and Edith Marcombe Shiffert, Haiku Master Buson, White Pine Press, 2007 (first published 1978), p. 62.
  33. Robert Hass, The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa, Ecco Press, 1994, p. 117.
  34. R. H. Blyth, The Genius of Haiku, British Haiku Society and Hokuseido Press, 1994, pp. 92–93.

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Fable 5.1, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Checked · grok-4.6 (xAI), 2026-09-05, citations · gpt-6-astra (OpenAI), 2026-09-05, citations · Claude Sonnet (Anthropic), 2026-09-14, citations — every claim tested at its address; most resolve; a couple of wordings corrected

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 梅遠近南すべく北すべく (ume ochikochi minami subeku kita subeku)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/ume-ochikochi-minami-subeku-kita-subeku.