--- In translatinghaiku@yahoogroups.com, "Greve Gabi"
<gokurakuatworldkigo@...> wrote:
>
> Here is her last haiku
>
> owari ni yuku michi wa izuku zo hana no kumo
>
> where is it,
> this final road ?
> clouds of cherry blossoms
>
> Tr. Gabi Greve
> http://wkdhaikutopics.blogspot.com/2007/03/ichihara-tayo-jo.html
>
>
>
> Japanese sources quote her birth year as 1766.


Gabi san,

This is great! When I come across someone's death poem, I put it on a
slip of paper and stick it between pages in the appropriate place in
Yoel Hoffman's "Japanese Death Poems." This is a welcome addition,
not that I'm happy that Tayo-jo died!

For what it's worth, here is some of Blyth's entry on Tayo-jo in
his "History of Haiku: Vol. Two" (I'm sorry I can't indicate the
kanji for names):

"Tayo-jo, 1772-1865, was the wife of a certain Muranaga and learned
haikai at first from Michihiko, then from Otsuni. She went to Edo in
1823."

Blyth translates these haiku of hers:

Yuku mo kuru mo mina harukaze no tsutsumi kana

People coming, people going,
It is all the spring wind
Along the embankment.

trans. Blyth


Ikisugite ware mo samui zo fuyu no hae

Living too long,
I too am cold,
O winter fly!

trans. Blyth

Blyth says about this haiku: "A verse which sounds like her death-
poem; she died at the age of ninety three."


Sorezore ni na mo arige nari moyuru kusa

Each must have its name,
The green-burning
Grasses.

trans. Blyth


Chinchooge yoru mo kakurenu nioi kana

The 'chinchooge'
Cannot be hid, even at night,--
The fragrance!

trans. Blyth

Blyth comments: "The 'chinchooge' is a flowering bush with an
extremely strong, sweet smell."


Zen-doki wo oboete kuru ya suzume no ko

Here come the young sparrows!
They seem to have learned
When meal-time is.

trans. Blyth

Stephen Addiss, in "A Haiku Menagerie: Living Creatures in Poems and
Prints," translates this haiku as:

They have learned
to visit at mealtimes--
baby sparrows

trans. Addiss

Addiss writes of Tayo-jo:

"Tayo (1776-1865) A haiku pupil of doctor and poet Michihiko (1757-
1819), Tayo moved to Edo in 1823, where she lived as a haiku master
until the age of ninety. Her two sons also became good haiku poets."


Kakururumo subayaki kiji ya kusa no kaze

A pheasant
Has rushed into cover?
Wind in the grasses.

trans. Blyth


It is after the entry on Tayo-jo that Blyth writes:

"We come now to the lowest point in the history of haiku, the period
between Issa and Shiki. Shiki was born in 1856, and Issa died in
1827, so this time is about the fifty years between 1827 and 1877.
[etc.]"


Larry