Fly, Flies (hae)

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Flies (hae)

***** Location: Japan, worldwide
***** Season: All Summer
***** Category: Animal

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Explanation

house flies, iebae 家蝿、家蠅、いえばえ、ハエ
may-fly, sabae 五月蝿 さばえ
meat-fly, nikubae 肉蠅

black fly, kurobae 黒蠅　くろばえ
golden fly, kinbae　金蠅
silver fly, ginbae　銀蠅

horse fly, umabae　馬蠅
cow fly, ushibae　牛蠅

paper to catch flies .. haetorigami > Fly-swatter

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Worldwide use


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Things found on the way



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HAIKU

留主にするぞ恋して遊べ庵の蝿
rusu ni suru zo koi shite asobe io no hae

while I'm away
enjoy the lovemaking
hut's flies

Issa

Translated by David Lanoue

Issa was off to a trip.
Did Issa suspect of Kiku's adultery during his long absence?

Larry comments on this:

Well, Issa seems to have loved Kiku, or at least was very fond of her. And since it's hard to keep secrets in small towns, I imagine the same would hold true in Kashiwabara.

According to Lewis Mackenzie, in the introduction to his book of Issa translations, "The Autumn Wind:"

"Early in 1814 he married Kiku, a farmer's daughter from the neighboring hamlet of Akagawa, whose family were distantly related to his mother's. Kiku was a rosy, good-humoured lass of twenty-eight whose like is to be seen about the countryside to this day [mid-1950's], dressed in the baggy blue and white trousers tight at the ankles (monpe), light-colored kerchief and scarlet braids that still form their daily costume.
. . .

"Whatever were Kiku's feelings about her elderly husband, it is clear from the number and nature of references to her in both journals and poems that she inspired him with deep affection. This is often expressed humorously, but as well as her own wholesome rustic charm she had the merit for him of being the first woman, since his mother, to give him the daily sympathy and steady companionship that can crown relations between the sexes after ardour has had its day.
. . .

"Some of the letters survive which Issa wrote to Kiku during his absences from home. They salute her with respect and speak of his solicitude for her health and regret for the tedium to which he had left her."

Mackenzie goes on to mention that Issa's diary entry for the day he married Kiku is disappointing to biographers and students:

"For instance, his marriage in April, 1814 is chronicled thus:

11th April--Fair--wife came, Tokuzaemon ['go-between' for the wedding] stayed"

However, Mackenzie goes on to say:

"On the other hand, a great number of verses at this time are playful conceits about the name Kiku, and even the diary records his joy and anxiety when she told him that she was with child.

[O Kiku no sandara-boshi ya kesa no yuki]

The Chrysanthemum
In her round straw hat--
This morning's snow."
. . .

"Kiku fell ill after the birth of another son. She had a long period of illness made more painful by arthritis and died in the spring of 1823. Issa had hurried to her bedside when her illness began and tended her with all his deeply bought experience of sickness. Perhaps it was because his love and sorrow were so deep that he wrote little about her death but mourned her even with a gentle smile.

[Kogoto iu aite mo araba kyo no tsuki]

The moon tonight!
If only she were here
To hear my grumbles."

Recent surveys have claimed that as many as 40% of married women admit to having had at least one affair. So it's your call. I think it would be amusing though to see a shunga haiga dealing with flies, perhaps with a lonely wife in the background watching them and yearning for her absent husband.

Larry Bole
Translating Haiku Forum


........................ Other versions

Now we are leaving,
the houseflies can make love
to their heart's content.
Sam Hamill


I'm going out now,
So enjoy yourselves making love,
Flies of my hut!
Blyth ("A History of Haiku," Vol. One, third printing 1968, p.382)
Translating Haiku Forum

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Related words

***** World Kigo Database: Fly-swatter

***** World Kigo Database: Gadfly (abu)

*****World Kigo Database: Mosquitoes (ka)

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