Mountain Temple

Leaf 352 – Reflections

 

This haiku was written about a trip to Mitake-san near Ome, in the mountains to the west of Tokyo (see also, Leaf 41). Mitake-san is actually the site of a Shintō shrine rather than a Buddhist temple, but the poem could easily be about Hiei-zan, near Kyoto, which I’ve also visited and is a similar mountain with many temples atop its high vantage. Mitake-san is particularly steep, its stone staircases and the paths and roadways leading up to them take a real effort to climb, as well as care in descending. A steep funicular railway carries you the first part of the way (the same as at Hiei-zan). At the top there are some wonderful views, and the air feels fresher and cooler compared to the narrow river valley below. The distinctive, melodious sound of uguisu (a kind of bush warbler, known as the Japanese nightingale) can be heard calling amidst the gentle ripple of the leaves in the treetops. This haiku is unusual in that it was first composed and refined in English after reading a haiku by Buson, which begins with the first line of ‘Yamadera ya.’ I then did my best to translate my English haiku into a proper 5-7-5 structured haiku in Japanese. I’m not sure how well it works as a haiku in Japanese, but the sentiment it strives for is very much what I feel whenever I visit holy mountains in Japan, such as Mitake-san or Hiei-zan.

 

 

山寺や   天上の段   上り猶

 

やまでらや   てんじょうのだん   のぼりなお

 

Mountain temple –

steps higher than heaven,

climbing higher still.

Photographs by Tim Chamberlain