Week 15: “Wild Geese Fly North”

April 08 to April 14 is the fifteenth week of 2024.  This week, we are in the Solar Term of Clear and Bright (Apr 4 – Apr 19). This week also contains the micro-seasons of “Swallows Return” (Apr 05 – Apr 09) and “Wild Geese Fly North” (Apr 10 – Apr 14).

Basho, Issa, Buson, and Noyes 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 take time to honor their ancestors.  The Qingming Festival (April 04) is one of the four traditional festivals of China.⁽²⁾

Cold Food Festival

The Cold Food Festival, or Hanshi Festival (寒食节), is a traditional festival held on Tomb Sweeping Day. This festival honors the death of a Jin nobleman named Jie Zitui in the 7th century BCE.  During the Cold Food Festival, no fires are made including fires used in cooking.⁽³⁾

The Legend Of Jie Zitui

In early 600 BCE, Prince Ji Chong’er was wrongly forced into exile.  Ji Chong’er was accompanied in exile by 15 of his noblemen.  One of these noblemen was Jie Zitui.  At a particularly difficult time in exile, when the group had no food, Jie Zitui cut a piece of flesh from his thigh and made it into a soup to relieve Ji Chong’er’s hunger.⁽⁴⁾

In 636 BCE, Ji Chong’er was reinstalled as Duke of Jin.  Ji Chong’er was very gracious to those who supported him in exile. However, he forgot about Ji Zitui.  Feeling discarded, Ji Zitui retreated to the forest of Mt. Mian to live in solitude.  Duke Ji Chong’er eventually tried to lure Ji Zitui back to his court, but Ji Zitui refused. This annoyed Ji Chong’er who ordered his men to set fire to the forest of Mt. Mian hoping to smoke Ji Zitui out and bring him back to the court.  But, Ji Chong’er’s plan failed and Ji Zitui burned to death on the mountain.⁽⁴⁾ After realizing what had happened, Ji Chong’er instituted the Cold Food Festival to honor Ji Zitui. 

Initially, this festival was held mid-winter and lasted for about a month.  Later, it was shortened to three days and held during Qingming.  Now it is a single-day observance held on Tomb-Sweeping Day.⁽⁴⁾ 

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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 “Swallows Return” (Apr 05 – Apr 09) and “Wild Geese Fly North” (Apr 10 – Apr 14).

The White-Fronted Goose

The White-Fronted Goose makes up 90% of the geese found in Japan.⁽⁵⁾  The White-Fronted Goose is divided into two separate sub-species: Greater White-Fronted Geese (Anser albifrons) and Lesser White-Fronted Geese (Anser erythropus), and the Greater White-fronted Goose is the dominant species. 

The Greater White-Fronted Goose is a medium-sized, heavy-bodied bird with stocky legs, a small bill, and a short neck.⁽⁷⁾ These birds average about 25.2-31.9 in. (64-81 cm) long and can have a wingspan of about 53.1 in (135 cm).  The adult birds are “mostly brown with white feathering around the base of a pinkish-orange bill. Black barring marks the belly and the under tail is white.”⁽⁷⁾ While the birds are flying, an observer can see a white “U” at the base of the tail. When the birds are standing still, an observer will be able to see a thin white line that goes across their side. 

The Lesser White-Fronted Goose is similar to the Greater White-Fronted Goose but smaller and more compact.  This goose averages about 21–26 in. (53–66 cm) long with a wingspan of about 47–53 in (120–135 cm).⁽⁸⁾  This goose is also described as having “a rather oval, ‘high-crowned’ head with a steep forehead . . . and relatively long wings which project well beyond the tail-tip.”⁽⁶⁾

Migration Pattern

The White-Fronted Goose spends its winters in Japan. In late March or early April, these geese leave and head to their summer homes in Siberia.  In September and early October, the white-fronted geese return from Siberia and take up residents on the marshes and rice paddies.⁽⁵⁾

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Astronomical Season

April 14, the last day of week fourteen, is 26 days past the spring equinox and 67 days until the summer solstice (June 20, 2024).  

New Moon and Solar Eclipse

April’s new Moon was on April 8, 2024.  A new Moon occurs when the Moon is directly between the Earth and the Sun.  This puts the Moon’s shadow toward the earth making it difficult to see.

April’s new Moon coincided with a total solar eclipse in parts of North America. A solar eclipse is when the Moon blocks out the light from the Sun.  The complete eclipse event, from partial to total eclipse to back, lasts about 3 hours and 17 minutes.  The total solar eclipse lasts for about 4 minutes and 28 seconds. 

April’s new moon is also within the astrological sign of Aries (March 21- April 19).  Jill Wintersteen, a columnist for Yoga Journal, explains that Aries is the sign of the warrior. The traits of the warrior are courage, willpower, and motivation. During an eclipse, the dark sides of Aries can come into focus. Wintersteen suggests that you take this time to reflect on the ways you are fighting yourself, identify the places where you are blocking your growth, acknowledge them, and try to work through the blockage.  

“This solar eclipse is an excellent time to face your fears around your soul’s mission. You may have an inner knowledge of your soul’s path and what it would look like to create this life. It takes courage, though, to align with your life’s mission. It may even take risks or leaps of faith to create a life you know you were born to live.”

Jill Wintersteen; Yoga Journal

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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, “departing ducks” and “departing geese” are relevant spring kigo. 

 In Jane Reichhold’s A Dictionary of Haiku, there are many potential bird kigo including “eagles”, “robins’, “storks”, and “thrush’.  Reichhold also lists “migrating birds return” as a kigo but nothing about birds leaving.

In the World Kigo Database by Dr. Gabi Greves, “migratory birds” is an autumn kigo. Greve explains this by referencing Richard Gilbert’s essay “Kigo Versus Seasonal Reference in Haiku: Observations, Anecdotes, and a Translation”.  In this essay, Gilbert states that “‘migratory birds’, is an autumn kigo in part because migrating birds arrive in Japan from Siberia to winter. They also depart in the spring, but in the culture of kigo, migrating birds migrate only one way, in one season.”  Therefore, the birds “depart” in the spring, and “migrate” in the autumn.

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

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Basho

as clouds drift apart 
a wild goose now separates 
from his only friend 
(translated by Tim Chilcott)

departing spring - 
birds weep, and fishes’ eyes 
are tearful 
(translated by Makoto Ueda)

Issa

on the day of departure, too
she leads...
the widow goose
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

the departing goose
stares the man
in the face
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

just one
but he goes honking...
departing goose
(translated by David G. Lanoue)

Buson

On Soushyu River
a wild goose’s tears —
a hazy moon
(translated by Allan Persinger)

Some left yesterday
and some left today —
no geese this evening
(translated by Allan Persinger)

H.F. Noyes

the geese fly off. . .
and now it comes to me 
that I am still here

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Haiku invitation

This week’s haiku invitation is to write a haiku or senryu referencing seasonal things that are leaving.

 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.  Noyes’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. “24 Solar Terms: 8 things you may not know about Clear and Bright”; ChinaDaily.com
4. “Cold Food Festival”; Wikipedia
5. Ishi Hiroyuki; “The Flight of the Wild Geese”: Nippon.com
6. “Greater and Lesser White-fronted Geese photo ID guide”; Birdguides.com
7. “Greater White-Fronted Goose”; AllAboutBirds.org
8. “Lesser White-Fronted Goose”; Wikipedia
9. Wintersteen, Jill “What the Solar Eclipse and New Moon in Aries Mean for You”: Yoga Journal