Week 14: “Swallows Return”

April 01 to April 07 is the fourteenth week of 2024.  This week, we end the Solar Term of Spring Equinox (Mar 20- Apr 3) and enter the Solar Term of Clear and Bright (Apr 4 – Apr 19).  During this week, we also have the micro-seasons of “Distant Thunder” (Mar 31 – Apr 4) and “Swallows Return” (Apr 05 – Apr 09).

Basho, Issa, Buson, Mizerit, Reichhold, and Kerouac wrote the poems selected for this week.  

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The 24 Solar Terms 

The 24 solar terms were created by farmers in ancient China  (206 BCE and 24 CE) to help guide their agricultural activities. Each solar term is 15 days long and is based on the climate around Xi’an, the capital of China during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE to 220 CE). ⁽¹⁾

Clear and Bright

Clear and Bright is the fifth Solar Term of the year and the fifth Solar Term of Spring.

Qingming (清明) is the Chinese name for this season. During Qingming (清明) people pause to honor their ancestors.  The Qingming Festival, which is held on April 04, is one of the four traditional festivals of China and it focuses on remembering those who have passed.⁽³⁾

Honoring the Ancestors

The Qingming Festival is also known as Tomb-Sweeping Day or The Mourning Day. During the festival, people head out to the cemeteries and clean up the debris that accumulated during the winter. People will also bring food, drinks, flowers, incense, and money to gravesites as offerings to their ancestors.⁽³⁾  

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The 72 Seasons

The 72-season calendar was established in 1685 by Japanese astronomer Shibukawa Shunkai.  Each season lasts for about 5 days and offers “a poetic journey through the Japanese year in which the land awakens and blooms with life and activity before returning to slumber.”⁽⁴⁾

This week we have the micro-seasons of “Distant Thunder” (Mar 31 – Apr 4) and “Swallows Return” (Apr 05 – Apr 09).

Comings and Goings

Within a given year, the 72-season calendar has several micro-seasons that comment on the comings and goings of things. This week, the “Swallows Return” and “Distant Thunder” can be heard. The opposite of these seasons are “The Swallows Leave” (Sep 17 – Sep 21) and “Thunder Ceases” (Sept 23 -Sept 27).

There are other seasonal pairs including:

• “Hibernating Insects Surface” (Mar 06 – Mar 10) and “Insects Hole Up Underground” (Sept 28–Oct 2)
• ‘Wild Geese Fly North” (Apr 10 – Apr 14) and “Wild Geese Return” (Oct 08 – Oct 12)
• “Last Frost, Rice Seedlings Grow” (Apr 25 – Apr 29) and “First Frost” (Oct 23 – Oct 27)

Each pair of seasons highlights a cycle in the natural world. The movements of the animals and the weather are choreographed in a way that might go unnoticed by most. But, because of the calendar’s attention to these transitions, these shifts are brought forward and help us recognize all that is happening in the world.

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Astronomical Season

April 07, the last day of week fourteen, is 19 days past the spring equinox and 74 days until the summer solstice (June 20, 2024).  

Waning Crescent

The Moon is in the Waning Crescent phase from April 03 – April 07.  This phase occurs between the Last Quarter (April 02) and the New Moon (April 08). During the Waning Crescent phase, the Moon’s illumination slowly decreases until it reaches 0% illumination on the night of the New Moon.

On April 07, the Moon will be on its last day of Waning Crescent with 2% illumination.⁽⁶⁾

Solar Eclipse

On April 08, 2024, there will also be a total solar eclipse in parts of the United States. This event technically will occur in the fifteenth week of the year, but it seems relevant to mention here.

Below is an explanation of the path of the eclipse from NASA.

“The path of the eclipse continues from Mexico, entering the United States in Texas, and traveling through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Small parts of Tennessee and Michigan will also experience the total solar eclipse. . . The eclipse will exit continental North America on the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada, at 5:16 p.m. NDT.“

Read NASA’s full article if you are interested in the exact times for partial and total eclipse events across the US.

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Haiku and Kigo 

The kigo, or season word, is one of the key parts of the haiku.  The Yuki Teikei Haiku Society provides us with the following explanation for why we use kigo in haiku. 

“A kigo is a poetic device used in haiku to denote a season; it’s a powerful word or phrase that can conjure up many allusions, historical references, spiritual meanings, and/or cultural traditions. Its use in haiku, a poem of few words, is especially effective because of this power to expand its meaning beyond the literal and to create a larger aura of seasonal mood, historical/ literary context, and/or cultural implications.”⁽⁹⁾

Visit The Haiku Foundation’s “New To Haiku: What is a Kigo?” for more information

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This Week’s Kigo

In The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words selected by Kenkichi Yamamoto, “swallow”, “bird enter clouds” and “spring thunder” are relevant kigo. 

 In Jane Reichhold’s A Dictionary of Haiku, “decorating graves”, “birds”, “migrating birds return”, and “swallows” are all relevant kigo.

According to the World Kigo Database by Dr. Gabi Greves, “cleaning the grave” is an autumn kigo.⁽⁷⁾ For the Japanese, “cleaning the grave” is associated with the Bon Festival (O’Bon Festival) which is held in mid-August.  This is different from the Chinese Qingming Festival or Tomb-Sweeping Day, which is a spring event.  

With all this in mind, let’s read some haiku. 

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Basho

don’t drop your dirt 
into my wine cup- 
flock of swallows. 
(translated by David Landis Barnhill)

butterflies and birds 
ceaselessly fluttering- 
clouds of blossoms. 
(translated by David Landis Barnhill)

you too come out, bat: 
all these birds amid the blossoms 
of this floating world 
(translated by David Landis Barnhill)

Issa

from deep in the cloud's
billows
thunder comes
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

hey nesting swallows--
grassy green mountains
are elsewhere
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

swallows--
these peach blossoms belong
to you
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

Buson

On ancient Japanese roads
in shabby straw shrines and houses
swallows
(translated by Allan Persinger)

Silva Mizerit

spring morning
early birds are pecking
the thin silence

Reichhold

canning jars
overflowing among the graves
roses

whispering welcome
to our winter-weary selves
returning geese

Kerouac

Thunder and snow–
   how
We shall go!

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Haiku invitation

This week’s haiku invitation is to write a haiku or senryu referencing the arrival of seasonal object.

This object can be a plant, an animal, the weather, or anything else. Have fun with this one.

Share your haiku in the comments below, or post on your page and link back. I can’t wait to read what you write! 

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Thank You!

About the Haiku

Basho’s haiku were retrieved from “Matsuo Bashō’s haiku poems in romanized Japanese with English translations” Editor: Gábor Terebess.  Issa’s haiku were retrieved from David G. Lanoue’s Haiku Guy. Buson’s haiku was retrieved from Foxfire: the Selected Poems of Yosa Buson, a Translation by Allan Persinger. Jane Reichhold’s haiku were retrieved from the Dictionary of Haiku. Kerouac’s haiku was retrieved from Kerouac’s  Book of Haikus.  Mizerit’s haiku was retrieved from Haiku Enlightenment by Gabriel Rosenstock.

1. “The 24 Solar Terms”; China Educational Tours
2. “6 Solar Terms of Spring”; China Educational Tours
3. “The Qingming Festival 2024”: China Educational Tours
4. 72 Seasons App
5. “Japan’s 72 Microseasons”; Nippon.com
6. “Moon Phase: April 07, 2024”; Moongiant.com
7. “Bon Festival (o-bon, obon)”; World Kigo Database. Dr. Gabi Greve