Basho was sitting near his hut, where he could hear the sound of cicada’s
cry. Cicada is an insect that produces a sound which the voice is like crying tone. His hut built near the little forest, there were lots of trees. Cicada lives on that
trees during summer. The sound of cicada’s cry is a time signal. This sound is only heard in summer, time can be known from the nature.
In Basho’s poem of the cicada’s cry, Basho employs the auditory imageries of the sound of cicada’s
cry.
3. Tactile Imagery
3.1 Tactile imagery in Basho’s dragonfly poem written in autumn 1690
Dragonfly Unable to hold on
To the Grass Blade Bahmil, 2004: 114
The moment when the dragonfly slipped away surprised him. He wrote this moment in the second line of his Haiku. The moment appeared as a surprising
moment, and as a Zen disciple, Basho perceived this experience as spiritual moment, when the dragonfly was unable to hold on the grass blade.
In Basho’s poem of the dragonfly, Basho employs tactile imagery the slippery grass blade.
3.2 Tactile imagery in Basho’s cherry trees poem written in spring 1691
Year upon year Fertilizing the cherry trees:
Blossom dust Bahmil, 2004: 121
The image may appear in this poem is that Basho saw the cherry trees. Besides the visual imagery this poem also has tactile imagery, that is the fragile,
blossom dust, He also took focus on the blossom dust. The blossom dust is the
image of soft, old thing, and fragile. In this fragility blossom dust still fertilize the cherry tree. In the fragility of blossom dust, it still has its function, that is
fertilizing the brand new cherry trees. In Basho’s cherry trees poem, Basho
employs tactile imagery the soft blossom dust. All the Basho’s poem in this thesis employs visual imagery. There are
three poems uses auditory imagery, which are the frog poem, the stormy sea poem, and the poem of the cicada’s cry. Two Basho’s poem employs tactile
imagery, which are poem of the dragonfly and the cherry trees poem. The imageries of those six haiku are concerning nature image.
Basho pictured nature as well as recorded the sound of the nature. This imagery of nature based on the cultural ground of the religious society, and the
relation between the nature and the culture.
B. Metaphors in the Basho’s haiku
1. Ontological metaphors in Basho’s haiku
Basho uses ordinary language to portray events. Most of events are natural
events, or natural process. The poem is the natural process in Japan. According to Lakoff, the experiences with physical objects provide the basis for an
extraordinarily wide variety of ontological metaphors, that is viewing events, emotions, ideas, as subtances 2003: 25.
1.1 Ontological Metaphors in Basho’s frog poem
Basho’s frog poem describes a moment when the frog jumps into the pond. This moment that happen once and only, done in a strike and then disappear. The
fast ‘plup’ sound is an imagery that would be imagined as the water sound.
