Years of searching for meaning revealed in a minute
I’m reading Natalie Goldberg’s book Three Simple Lines, in which she describes her visit to Japan as she traces the footsteps of haiku master Basho.
Along with her travel companions, she meets Harada and his son, the caretaker of a shrine. While they’re at the shrine, the son asks why the Americans have come to Japan. Goldberg explains their purpose and then recites one of Basho’s haiku—his death haiku:
Sick on the journey
my dreams wander
over withered fields
She also carries a book by Buson, another renowned haiku poet, who, on his deathbed, says:
The heights of ‘My dream hovers over withered fields’—Basho’s last haiku—is impossible for me to reach. Therefore, the old poet Basho’s greatness is supremely moving to me now
Goldberg explains that her enthusiasm for this haiku stems from “intensely studying it after reading Buson’s comment.” Yet, she admits she still “doesn’t quite grasp its greatness.”
She goes on to write:
Immediately, a lively discussion flies back and forth across the altar room among Harada, Taiseki, and Mitsue.
After more than a minute, Mitsue turns to me and says “It’s not withered fields. Poor translation.”
“No? What is it?”
They confer again for a long time.
It seems this is important to the three of them. Mitsue then explains, “Something much wilder. After everything has died and it’s all removed — the stubble, everything — the fields are totally empty, truly vast.”
I take a step back. Tears spring to my eyes. On his death bed, Basho embraced the whole impermanent field of the universe.
I’m noting this down to remember how easily native speakers grasp meaning that can be lost, or never fully carried, when translated into another language. Something deeply significant to someone can be hidden simply by the wrong choice of words.
Today, with advancements like LLMs, perhaps we no longer need to travel to Japan and seek out monks to get an accurate translation of a Japanese poem. Yet, it’s still necessary to have reached a place in one’s life where, when that hidden meaning is finally revealed, it moves one to tears.
