Matsuo Bashô is Japan's most famous poet and probably its most important as well. He wrote his first poems before he was twenty. He was known particularly for a more serious approach to the mocking and playful genre of poetry called haikai, which was the basis of modern day haiku. He was highly influenced by Iio Sôgi, a fifteenth century poet famous for renga, or "linked poetry". Several poets wrote these poems over several days. Bashô, however, wrote mostly independent haikai. Most of Bashô's poetry contains a theme related to nature, often focusing on a particular animal, including Old Pond, Silence, and On a Dead Branch.
Bashô was born in 1644 into a lower samurai class family in Akasaka, Ueno, Iga province (now Mie prefecture). He was born under the name Kinsaku, and he later changed his name to Bashô after a banana plant, which was brought to him by one of his disciples. His father was Matsuo Yozaemon, and nothing is known about his mother. During his early adulthood, he served a higher class samurai family to learn to be a proper samurai; however, his teacher passed away when Bashô was in his twenties. At this time, he traveled to Edo (now Tôkyô) and officially became a poet.
Old Pond is Bashô's most famous poem. The speaker of this haikai is a person sitting by an old pond listening to the sound the water makes as a frog jumps in. An old pond is usually a quiet place where one can relax without the worry of much sound. By saying it is an "old pond" in line one, Bashô suggests that the water is completely still to begin with, and that the frog leaping in causes the speaker to focus on the sudden splash. In line two, Bashô states that "a frog jumps in". A frog in Japan is a symbol of the spring, so by this he indicates the approximate time of year. Line three, "the sound of water", indirectly implies a surrounding silence simply because the speaker is able to hear the sound clearly. This obviously indicates that there is hardly any noise in the background.
In one of Bashô's less popular poems, Silence, the speaker is yet again a person listening to the sounds of nature. Line one, "silence", at first seems contrary to lines two and three, "penetrating a rock, the voice of a cicada". In these lines, Bashô might have meant to convey a paradox; however, there is a more likely meaning. In Japan, the sound of a cicada is extremely common in the summer; therefore, he is probably saying that even though the voice seems so loud that it might penetrate a rock, the speaker notices nothing because of the commonness of the cicada's voice. This can be compared to the sound of a cricket; it is hardly noticed because crickets are so common. There is also a metaphor found in line two, "penetrating a rock", because a voice obviously cannot literally sink into a rock. This is meant to display figuratively the intensity of the cicada's voice. Finally, because the cicada is very common in the summer, this poem conveys that season.
Another one of Bashô's more known poems, On a Dead Branch, contains an extended metaphor throughout the whole poem. In this haikai, Bashô insinuates that a crow landing on a dead branch brings about the same feeling as dusk settling in the autumn. The "dead branch" in line one stands for the dying of sunlight that leads to dusk. The crow is used particularly because it is black just like nightfall. Also in line two, the verb "settling" has a double meaning: the crow landing on the branch and the "settling" of dusk. In line three, the autumn season is used because in autumn, the sun sets earlier, and it gets darker faster. The speaker of this poem is an observer of nature, rather than a listener, who notices a crow perching on a branch and is reminded of the darkness of nightfall.
The poem, Old Pond, is "said to portray the dynamic intersection between the still surface of the pond and the action of the frog's leap" (Higginson 57). In other words, according to Higginson, the poem displays the contrast between the quietness of water and the noisiness of a frog jumping into it. Higginson also says that it "restores the frog to its simple creaturehood and wryly comments on the tradition [of its singing as an important sign of spring]" (Higginson 57). He is saying that in most poems, the frog is used as a symbol of spring, but in this particular poem, the frog is simply a part of nature and does not depict the season of spring. This statement is not true. The frog in this poem does represent the season because of the serene tone that makes it seem like spring.
The poem, Silence, contains "a complex unit of opposites… deep silence… penetrating sound… solidness of the rock… immateriality of the [cicada] voice…" (Florea 1). This is true because although a paradox was not the intention of the poem, a lot of opposites are displayed. It is also true that "[silence] suggests a scene without people…" (Koganei 1). This poem seems to imply the harmony of nature without human interference.
In the poem, On a Dead Branch, "the verb 'settling' [ties the crow in place as a metaphor for autumn dusk] because we say dusk 'settles' and not lands or perches" (Reichhold 1). This verb was intended to be two-sided, describing both dusk and a crow. In the original poem, "the use of the sharp 'k' sounds… mimic the sounds [of] the black bird…" (Higginson 57). This is important as alliteration and onomatopoeia, but it is lost in the translation.
These are three of Bashô's poems that are very much alike. A similarity between all three poems is the theme of nature. Each one of these poems depicts an animal in its natural surroundings: a frog jumping into a pond, a cicada among the rocks, and a crow perching on a branch. Another connection among all three poems is that each one directly or indirectly suggests a season: spring, summer, and autumn. There are also other similarities that apply to two of the poems. Silence and Old Pond both convey a natural, quiet area. On a Dead Branch and Silence both contain a metaphor, although one is extended throughout the whole poem and one is small.
In Old Pond, Silence, and On a Dead Branch, Bashô shows animals surrounded by nature as a reoccurring theme. Old Pond shows the contrast between the silence of an old pond and the sound of a frog jumping in. Silence portrays the commonness of the sound of a cicada. On a Dead Branch compares autumn dusk to a crow landing on a dead branch. Through these haikai and many others, Bashô has tried to communicate to his readers that nature can be not only very beautiful, but symbolic as well.