【Update 2023-12-07: This is an outdated version of this article. For a more up to date version, please see: https://laspina.org/i-am-poor-bashos-pursuit-of-poetic-purity/ 】

雪の朝独リ干鮭を噛み得タリ

yuki no ashita hitori karazake o kami e tari

this snowy morn
by myself
eating dried salmon
—Bashō
(trans. David LaSpina)

There is a headnote for this hokku which reads "rich people eat meat and ambitious young men eat roots. But I am poor."

He is referring to the Chinese Sung philosopher Wang Yang-ming (Kōjisei in Japanese) who wrote "One who can get by on vegetable roots can accomplish anything". Bashō, on the other hand, doesn't aspire to such grand things; he is content to be poor, to wander, and to write haiku.

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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org.