Nose hana

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Nose (hana　鼻) Nase

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Non-seasonal Topic
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation

Anatomically, a nose is a protuberance in vertebrates that houses the nostrils, or nares, which admit and expel air for respiration in conjunction with the mouth. Behind the nose are the olfactory mucosa and the sinuses. Behind the nasal cavity, air next passes through the pharynx, shared with the digestive system, and then into the rest of the respiratory system.
In humans, the nose is located centrally on the face; on most other mammals, it is on the upper tip of the snout.
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Things found on the way



. Tengu 天狗 Long-Nosed Goblins .


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HAIKU





Compiled by Larry Bole :

yuugao no hana de hana kamu musume kana

with a plucked
moonflower, a young woman
blows her nose
--Kobayashi Issa,
Tr. Ueda


The young girl
Blows her nose
In the evening-glory.
Tr. Blyth

Blyth also mentions an alternate version of this haiku that Issa wrote, substituting "obaba" for "musume", which Blyth translates as:

The old woman
blows her nose
in the evening-glory.

Blyth mentions that
"The evening convolvulus is of course a large white one, as large almost as a 'real lady's' handkerchief."

Since 'hana' can mean both 'flower　花' and 'nose/mucuous',
Amanda Farrell suggests that there may have been drops of nectar in the open blossom.
- read Amanda Farrell -


If that is the case, then perhaps Issa saw drops of nectar in the blossom, and imagined how they might have gotten there.


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. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .



source :　itoyo/basho


手鼻かむ音さへ梅の盛り哉
tebana kamu oto sae ume no sakari kana

At a mountain cottage in Iga
even the sound
of someone blowing his nose:
plum blossoms
Tr. Barnhill


The sound of someone
Blowing his nose with his hand;
The plum-blossoms at their best.
Tr. Blyth


At a Mountain Cottage
blowing his snotty nose
such a sound with the plum
in bloom
Tr. Reichhold



Written in Spring of 1688 貞亨5年春
Oi no Kobumi

Basho describes every-day life in his hokku.
Not even such a simple thing as the blowing of a nose is beyond his poetic spirit.

This hokku has the cut marker KANA at the end of line 3.


even the sound of someone
blowing his nose with his hand
under the plum-blossoms in full bloom . . .
Tr. Gabi Greve

This hokku is very difficult to translate in a short version.
The word SAE "even" seems to hold an important meaning.


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Blyth compares this to another verse by Issa:

hatauchi ya tebana o nejiru ume no hana

Tilling the field,
He wipes his snotty hand
On the plum-flowers.
Tr. Blyth

Regarding the Basho haiku, Barnhill writes:
One of several hokku that emphasize the inclusive aesthetic vision of Basho. This hokku was written during his journey that produced 'Knapsack Notebook', in which Basho said that for one who has the poetic spirit, "nothing one sees is not a flower."
[end of comment]

Reichhold writes:
Some scholars think Basho was trying to see how vulgar, or lifelike, he could make his poem in opposition to the more proper waka, where such an image would never be used. 'Hana' can mean both "nose" and "flower." The image of a man blowing his nose onto the ground and using his fingers to wipe away the snot is very graphic.
[end of comment]


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hana terete hitori go o ustu yosamu kana

With nose adrip,
alone at a game of go --
a cold night!
Tr. Sawa & Shiffert

Yosa Buson


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And then there is the very sad "death poem" written
by Akutagawa Ryuunosuke (Gaki) before he committed suicide by drinking poison:

mizubana ya hana no saki dake kure nokoru

Deriding Myself

My runny nose:
everywhere, except on that spot
evening dusk falls.
Tr. Ueda


laughing at myself

One spot, alone,
left glowing in the dark:
my snotty nose.
Tr. Yoel Hoffman


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Back to Kobayashi Issa


畠打や手洟をねぢる梅の花
hata-uchi ya tebana o nejiru ume no hana

plowing his field
he rolls his snot
on plum blossoms

This hokku was written at the end of the 1st month (February) in 1811, soon after Issa had returned to Edo from a trip to the area east of Edo Bay. Perhaps he saw this plowman at one of the many farms in the outskirts of Edo. Body realism is one of the most important elements in the haikai of Issa and many other Edo haikai poets, and here Issa suggests a farmer completely focused and intent on the hard work of plowing in early spring.
The field is a dry field for vegetables or grain, not a rice paddy.

Chris Drake


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Back to Matsuo Basho

蓮の香を目にかよはすや面の鼻
hasu no ka o me ni kayowasu ya men no hana

the fragrance of lotus
reaches the eyes -
(through the ) nose of a Noh mask
Tr. Gabi Greve


source :　笹やんの能面打ち


Written in Genroku 7 元禄7年夏
This hokku has the cut marker YA at the end of line 2.

Basho visited the home of the Noh actor Honma Shume 本間主馬.
The Noh mask has holes in the nose part for the actor to see just a little bit in front below him. So the fragrance indeed comes through the nose for him to see.
A simple man like Basho can only feel the fragrance with his nose.

. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 - Archives of the WKD .



quote
Basho, in introducing one of his poems, writes:
"In the house of Honma Shume, on the wall of his Noh stage, there hangs a painting: a tableau of skeletons with flutes and hand-drums.
Truth to tell, can the face of life be anything other than this?
And that ancient tale about the man who used a skull for a pillow and ended up unable to distinguish dream from reality - that, too, tells us something about life"

Religion and Nothingness
Keiji Nishitani
source : books.google.co.jp


. Noo 能 Noh-Performance and Kigo .


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Valentine's Day:
with a head cold my wife blows
a kiss and her nose!

Larry Bole
Valentine 2012


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subdued class--
I feel uneasy to blow
my nose

- Caleb Mutua, Nairobi Kenya


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Related words

***** . WKD : Body Parts and Haiku .



. WKD - LIST of haiku topics and keywords 　


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