Clear and Bright
April 4 - 18
In this episode, Alexis and Kit celebrate the season known as "Clear and Bright," discuss seasonal keywords known as kigo, and share the joys of the beginning of spring around the world.
Poems & Prose Featured in this Episode
“Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"
"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...”
Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
***
I come, I come! Ye have called me long,
I come o’er the mountains with light and song!
Ye may trace my step o’er wakening earth
By the winds that tell of violets’ birth
By the primrose stars in the shadowy grass
By the leaves opening as I pass
Ms. Hemans, from a The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady
***
Spring has come
In all its simplicity
A bright yellow sky
— Issa
***
Springtime is upon us.
The birds celebrate her return with festive song,
and murmuring streams are
softly caressed by the breezes.
Antonio Vivaldi
***
All the day long
Yet not enough for the skylark
Singing, singing
— Basho
***
Voices
Above the white clouds
Skylarks
— Kyoroku
***
The skylark
Hides itself
In the expanse of blue sky
— Rokuto
***
Spring Song
by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Hark, I hear a robin calling!
List, the wind is from the south!
And the orchard-bloom is falling
Sweet as kisses on the mouth.
In the dreamy vale of beeches
Fair and faint is woven mist,
And the river's orient reaches
Are the palest amethyst.
Every limpid brook is singing
Of the lure of April days;
Every piney glen is ringing
With the maddest roundelays.
Come and let us seek together
Springtime lore of daffodils,
Giving to the golden weather
Greeting on the sun-warm hills.
Ours shall be the moonrise stealing
Through the birches ivory-white;
Ours shall be the mystic healing
Of the velvet-footed night.
Ours shall be the gypsy winding
Of the path with violets blue,
Ours at last the wizard finding
Of the land where dreams come true.
***
Hazy moon --
The pine passing through
Passing through
— Issa
***
Afflictions of the mind
Resembling moonlit haze;
It’s one of those nights.
— Natsume Soseki
***
The bell from far away
How it moves along in its coming
Through the spring haze!
— Onitsura
***
To pluck is a pity
To leave is a pity
Ah, this violet!
— Naojo
***
How many, many things
they call to mind
These cherry blossoms!
— Basho
***
In the city fields
Contemplating cherry trees. . .
Strangers are like friends.
— Issa
***
The cherry blossoms
Put the whole world
Under a tree
— Watsujin
***
The wind falls,
The mountains are clear!
Now the frogs
— Oemaru
***
Under the hazy moon,
Water and sky are obscured
By the frog
— Buson
***
The Frog
by William Henry Dawson
Have you ever wished when fretting
'Bout the chilly air of spring,
When the days are longer getting
And the frogs begin to sing,
Have you ever wished that you could
Just change places with the frog—
Let him shoulder all your trouble
And then leave you on the log,
In the middle of the mill-pond,
Nothing in the world to do?
Have you wished you could change places,
You be frog and frog be you?
He don't fret 'bout rainy weather;
If the sun shines he don't cry;
He just takes it all together;
Happy wet and happy dry.
***
Pear petals fall in a slight wind on Qingming Day,
Men and women, old and young, take a trip to look for spring.
When the wonderful music and songs ended at sunset,
Golden orioles fly through thousands of willows freely.
— Wu Weixin
***
Visiting the graves
The old dog
Leads the way
— Issa
***
The Great Buddha
Dozing, dozing
All the spring day
— Shiki
***
A swallow flew out of
The nose
Of the great Buddha
— Issa
***
By when the thaw comes
The first sun is mine The first kiss of April is mine! Rose buds in a vase Leaf and leaf I watch it!
La Boheme, Puccini
Music Featured in this Episode
The Four Seasons by Vivaldi
La Dance Nostalgique by The Owl
Tsolak Jan by Zulal
Convergence by Pictures of the Floating World
Nature Shuffle by Ketsa
Main Square by Jazzar
First Day of Spring by David Hilowitz
Explore by Madoka
Visual Examples of Seasonal Words
