The Ritual Master Every season has its poetry…yet there is something so subtle in those first blossoms of the year that pairs perfectly with poetry. Join me on a poetic journey through three cultures that have excelled in expressing our fascination for springtime.
Haiku
春風に吹き出し笑ふ花もがな
A Spring breeze is blowing
I’m bursting with laughter
— wishing for flowers
Matsuo Basho, 1668
Persian Soul
Fire of Spring
by Omar Khayyam
Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring
The Winter Garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly—and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.
And look—a thousand blossoms with the Day
Woke—and a thousand scatter’d into Clay:
And this first Summer Month that brings the Rose
Shall take Jamshid and Kaikobad away.
Alas, that spring should vanish with the rose!
That Youth’s sweet-scented Manuscript should close!
The nightingale that in the Branches sang,
Ah, whence, and whither flown again, who knows!
English Garden
Lines Written in Early Spring
by William Wordsworth
I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.
To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.
Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And ’tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.
The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:
—But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.
The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.
If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature’s holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?
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