H3004 – Haiku by Buson – The long slow days of spring …
by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase

The long slow days of spring
piling up, so far away
the past ^[1]

R. H. Blyth suggests the translation:

Slow days passing, accumulating, –
How distant they are,
The things of the past. ^[2]

R. H. Blyth writes:

The sense of the passage of time, bound up with the feeling of the evanescence of things is inborn to the Japanese, but intensified by the Indian thought that remained in the Buddhism introduced to Japan. ^[2]

Haruo Shinane suggests the translation:

The long, slow days of spring
piling up –
so far away, the past! ^[3]

Haruo Shinane writes:

‘Long day’ (osoki hi) is a late-spring day when the sun sets late and the day seems to last forever, reminding the poet both of the past, of youth, which seems so far away, and of the many springs and years that have come and gone since that time. This poem was composed in 1775. ^[3]

References:

^[1] Translation by Timothy L. Jackowski, Takase Studios, LLC. Though clearly this translation relies heavily on Haruo Shinane’s. ^[3]

^[2] Blyth, R. H. (1982). Haiku Volume 4 Autumn-Winter. Tokyo. The Hokuseido Press. 984.

^[3] Shinane, Haruo. (2004). Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600-1900 (Abridged Edition) (Translations from the Asian Classics). United States. Columbia University Press. 545.

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