First Snow (hatsuyuki)

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First Snow (hatsuyuki)

***** Location: Japan, worldwide
***** Season: Early or Mid-Winter
***** Category: Heavens

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Explanation


first snow, hatsu yuki 初雪
new snow, shinsetsu　新雪
first snow on a mountain top, hatsu kansetsu 初冠雪

First snow falls at various times according to the hight of the place and its Northern location, reaching from Okinawa to Hokkaido, from 4000 meters at Mt. Fuji to zero meters on the long coastline.




Look at our first snow while the red leaves are still on the branches.


More WINTER pictures here:
Winter in Ohaga, Japan

First Snow in 2005, on red leaves

First Snow in Ohaga, 2005 -

. First Snow in 2008 .

Gabi Greve

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First Snow on Mount Fuji, fuji no hatsuyuki
富士の初雪 ふじのはつゆき
kigo for mid-autumn


hatsuyuki no shirase arite fuji no yama

first snow
late on Mount Fuji ...
says the news

　©　Gabi Greve, 2007. With more Photos !




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Worldwide use

France

première neige
See below.

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Things found on the way

I don't think any of us had expected snow today, though the steps were slippery as I left my home this morning. By afternoon the air was full of white and by evening traffic moved slowly down white streets. As I walked up the hill my footsteps melted holes in the white, but the steps to my home were untouched, still slippery under the thick, cold blanket.


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First Snow, a brandname for ricewine !



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HAIKU

first snow
on the branches
dripping down

Michael Baribeau
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初雪や水仙の葉のたわむ迄　
hatsuyuki ya suisen no ha no tawamu made

The first snow,
Just enough to bend
The leaves of the daffodils

Takase Studios
http://www.takase.com/Haiku/Haiku.htm

The very first snow!
Up to where the leaves of the
daffodils do bend.

- Tr. James Karkoski - fb 2016 -


. Matsuo Basho　松尾芭蕉 .

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. Yosa Buson 与謝蕪村 in Edo .

初雪の底をたたけば竹の月
hatsu yuki no soko o tatakeba take no tsuki

Once the first snow
runs to the bottom of itself....
moon over bamboo.

'Soko o tataku" is an idiom that means "to run out of something that is within a container." It literally means "to hit the bottom of".
"Ba"'is a conjunctive particle that indicates an hypothetical situation, 'if...., when...., once....'

It's hard to imagine that there is another poet in any other language who has been able to manipulate time and space like Buson does in many of his haiku. In this haiku he has packed the past, the present and the future all into one. The first snow is falling and he talks about what the future will be after it by remember something in the past. I moved the last syllable of the first line to the second to keep the integrity of the line length together.
- Tr. James Karkoski - fb 2016 -

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. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 in Edo .

hatsu yuki ni kizo no taimatsu no hokori kana

in first snow
last night's pine torch
remnant

Kobayashi Issa

Issa uses the word hokori ("dust") in its older sense as "remnant": in the new-fallen snow he sees the charred remains of last night's torch. A nice example of both juxtaposition and seasonal mood in haiku.
See Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1483.
http://webusers.xula.edu/dlanoue/issa/index.html

in first snow
the dog goes first...
two-penny bridge-

Issa, 1812
http://cat.xula.edu/issa/


はつ雪やといえば直ぐに三四尺
hatsu yuki ya to ieba sugu ni sanshi shaku

The year's first snowfall!
Speaking of which, it's already
a meter or more.

The year's first snowfall!
Speaking of which, it's already
at three feet or more.

'Shaku' is the measure of length the 30.3 centimeters.
'Sanshi' is '3 or 4'.

It is often said in Japan that Issa wrote senryū. The going definition of a what separates a haiku from a senryū is that if the sole purpose is to make the reader laugh then it is a senryū. There isn't any doubt that Issa was after a laugh here. Any Saijiki will tell you that 'first snow' is usually written about as being the kind of snow mixed with rain. Yet, here is Issa over exaggerating telling you that it is major blizzard that will leave more snow. Since I am an American, the second version with the 'feet' brings out the ridiculousness that the phrase 'speaking of which' buffers and makes me laugh more.

- Tr. James Karkoski - fb 2016 -

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初雪をじっと見ている窓辺の娘
hatsuyuki o jiito miteiru madobe no ko

A girl by the window
stares at the first snow
of the year

Nakai
http://web.kyoto-inet.or.jp/people/ahn01370/K/HC/lk3.html

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early snow ~
so much brighter
are the red leaves

last red leaves
bleeding
on early snow

Ed Schwellenbach

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Brussels November 26, 2005
by Isabelle Prondzynski

This week-end, we had heavy snowfall which continued for many hours -- unexpected at this time of year. Bicycle paths became unusable, rubbish remained uncollected, and our calligraphy exhibition was almost cancelled!

As I write, there is the drip-drip-drip of thawing slush in the street, a damp patch in the kitchen shows where there must be a fault in the gutter above, and my plants will spend another night on the balcony, as it does not look like frost.

Seasons mingled in an unusual way ... and here are the haiku, just for fun...

fresh snow
on street cafe tables --
bad for business

autumn leaves
fall on fresh snow --
a haiku rises


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A sequence from Daniel Py
(WHCfrench editor)

Neige / est si fine / première de l'année !
Sneeuw / o zo licht / de eerste van het jaar !

(in french and dutch; appeared in
Spreeuwenagenda 2000 Holland)

.....

More haiku about the first snow to fall in Paris,
at the end of November (26th) 2005

secouer les oreillers / par la fenêtre / la première neige

to shake the pillows
out the window -
first snow
>
> °°°
rentrer la jardinière / de géraniums / - première neige

bring inside
the window-box of geraniums -
first snow
>
> °°°
sur le balcon / restent seuls / racines et fossiles / - première
neige

on the balcony / only remain roots and fossils / - the first snow
>
> °°°
le compotier / regorgeant d'oranges / - première neige

the fruit-bowl
laden with oranges -
first snow


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Related words

***** Snow (yuki) Japan

***** Snowman (yuki Daruma) Japan (yuki-botoke)

***** First Things (hatsumono) in Japan


***** . Closing the North-Window 北窓塞ぐ kitamado fusagu .



. SAIJIKI - HEAVEN in all seasons 　

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