232Haiku 俳句
春や昔十五万石の城下かな
はるやむかしじゅうごまんごくのじょうかかなHaru ya mukashi jūgomangoku no jōka kana
“Spring — long ago, a proud castle town of a hundred fifty thousand koku.”
The meaning
Spring returns to a town whose former greatness has receded. The memory of places gives the present its depth — without preventing life there.
At the origin
Shiki's haiku on Matsuyama, his native town, once a lordly city.
The characters
- 春 haruspring
- や yacutting word
- 昔 mukashilong ago
- 十五万
- 石
- の
- 城下
- かな
やParticle“And” of an open list: among others. In a haiku it is the cut — a silence that parts the verse.
In practice
Learn what your neighborhood once was: the present will gain thickness.
Themes
Similar proverbs
- 176 明日の百より今日の五十 Better fifty today than a hundred tomorrow.
- 206 人の噂も七十五日 A rumor lives but seventy-five days.
- 201 人は城、人は石垣、人は堀 People are the castle, people are the walls, people are the moat.
- 231 鶏頭の十四五本もありぬべし Cockscombs — there must be fourteen, maybe fifteen.
- 076 人間万事塞翁が馬 Everything in life is like the old man's horse.