farewells – – haibun

At first I skirt around the Requiem. I am looking for music by Fauré that is as beautiful as the Pavane I heard the other day, but I am not sure I am in the mood for somber choral music. Clicking on the options, the Requiem’s closing section, In Paradisum, plays and I find it fits my mood after all … on this quiet day in late December, when the first year of a new decade will soon begin.

While I doubt Paradise is on the immediate horizon, longer days and spring are on the way…and as long as I breathe, there are opportunities to live a bit better, to offer more.

deep winter

no fireplace or falling snow

just the peace of Fauré

.

.

©️2019 Ontheland

For a listen to Fauré’s Paradisum:

https://youtu.be/QOUXA1sNIkA

And for Matsuo Basho’s farewell to his companion, Sora, on his journey to the Interior:

“Sora, suffering from persistent stomach ailments, was forced to return to his relatives in Nagashima in Ise Province. His parting words:

sick to the bone

if I should fall, I’ll lie

in fields of clover

He carries his pain as he goes, leaving me empty. Like paired geese parting in the clouds.

Now falling autumn dew

obliterates my hatband’s

“We are two”

I stayed at Zensho-ji, a temple near the castle town of Daishoji in Kaga province. It was from this temple that Sora departed last night, leaving behind:

All night long

listening to autumn winds

wandering in the mountains

…”

Basho, “Narrow Road to the Interior,” translated by Sam Hamill, the Essential Basho, p. 32-33, an excerpt from Frank Tassone’s Day 23 and final episode of November with Basho