The old book A Year of Japanese Epigrams attributes this autumn hokku to Bashō — though I have not been able to find it in collections of his verses. In modern hokku terms it would be a daoku, that is, an objective hokku, but whether it was so originally, I cannot say. Remember that sometimes old hokku were written with a double meaning. I prefer to take it as objective, which makes it in my view a far better verse than a subjective interpretation would offer:
Morning wind;
Only one wild goose
In the white clouds.
Or we could revise it somewhat to improve the flow:
Morning wind;
Among the white clouds —
A lone wild goose.
Asa kaze ya tada shira kumo ni kari hitotsu
Morning wind ya only white clouds at wild-goose one
It gives us a feeling of solitude that one senses in many autumn hokku, when, as Nature begins to turn inward, so do humans.
It often seems to me as I translate, that when writing hokku, English generally gives us far more options for word choices and shades of meaning than the traditional Japanese “hokku” vocabulary. Is that just a limited perception or reality? It would be interesting to hear a learned Japanese view on this.
David
HOKKU 