The Beginning of Winter
November 7 - 21
In this brisk episode of Season by Season, Alexis and Kit savor the last moments of autumn. Join them as they kick through the fallen leaves under persimmon trees, prepare their appetites for heartier fare, and learn about the festival of lights Diwali. Hiro's Corner features an interlude with a uniquely autumnal kind of rain.
Poems featured in this episode:
"November" by Elizabeth Stoddard
Much have I spoken of the faded leaf;
Long have I listened to the wailing wind,
And watched it ploughing through the heavy clouds,
For autumn charms my melancholy mind.
When autumn comes, the poets sing a dirge:
The year must perish; all the flowers are dead;
The sheaves are gathered; and the mottled quail
Runs in the stubble, but the lark has fled!
Still, autumn ushers in the Christmas cheer,
The holly-berries and the ivy-tree:
They weave a chaplet for the Old Year’s bier,
These waiting mourners do not sing for me!
I find sweet peace in depths of autumn woods,
Where grow the ragged ferns and roughened moss;
The naked, silent trees have taught me this,—
The loss of beauty is not always loss!
***
a shooting star...
unable to use up the length of
the vast sky
— Shugyo Takaha
***
Slurping ramen
In Kitakata
The north wind blows - hyuuuu!
—Takasawa Yoichi
***
After a climb
To the mountain top
A ramen shop
—Takasawa Yoichi
***
A jumbo serving of clams
For my ramen
The cold rain pelts
—Akabane Toshiko
***
A cold, gray day, a lowering sky,
A lonesome pigeon wheeling by;
The soft, blue smoke that hangs and fades,
The shivering crane that flaps and wades;
Dead leaves that, whispering, quit their tree,
The peace the river sings to me;
The chill aloofness of the Fall—
I love it all!
—Unknown
***
today too, today too
autumn rain...
mountainside house
—Issa
***
Cold Winter shower!
See all the people running
Across the Seta Bridge
-Josa
***
The scarlet leaves
Serve as armor for the mountain
Against the rain
—Chobane
***
November Night by Adelaide Crapsey
Listen ...
With faint, dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break free from the trees
And fall.
***
fallen leaves--
not a single crow
is irksome
— Issa
***
the wind has brought
enough to build a fire...
fallen leaves
— Issa
***
The gods are absent
everything is desolate
among the fallen leaves
— Basho
***
In the Godless Month
I wake at night and listen
to what gives voice
to a storm on this hillside . . .
the sound of falling leaves
- Monk Noin (988-1050)
***
The Consent by Howard Nemerov
Late in November, on a single night
Not even near to freezing, the ginkgo trees
That stand along the walk drop all their leaves
In one consent, and neither to rain nor to wind
But as though to time alone: the golden and green
Leaves litter the lawn today, that yesterday
Had spread aloft their fluttering fans of light.
What signal from the stars? What senses took it in?
What in those wooden motives so decided
To strike their leaves, to down their leaves,
Rebellion or surrender? and if this
Can happen thus, what race shall be exempt?
What use to learn the lessons taught by time,
If a star at any time may tell us: Now.
***
three shadows
from persimmons on a stick
on the paper door
— Hayu
***
one persimmon
droops listlessly...
winter rain
— Issa
***
on the high branch
one astringent persimmon...
like old times
— Issa
***
Write me down
As the one who loved
Persimmons
— Shiki
***
Migrating down through northern seas
Says the report
Time to buy sanma
— Toyama no Kanto
***
A gift from the north
Grilled sanma
— Chris Mathlos
***
snow crabs ...
together to Fukui
on a winter trip
— Rikei
***
Light by Rabindranath Tagore
Light, my light, the world-filling light,
the eye-kissing light,
heart-sweetening light!
Ah, the light dances, my darling, at the center of my life;
the light strikes, my darling, the chords of my love;
the sky opens, the wind runs wild, laughter passes over the earth.
The butterflies spread their sails on the sea of light.
Lilies and jasmines surge up on the crest of the waves of light.
The light is shattered into gold on every cloud, my darling,
and it scatters gems in profusion.
Mirth spreads from leaf to leaf, my darling,
and gladness without measure.
The heaven's river has drowned its banks
and the flood of joy is abroad.
Music Heard on this Episode
Organ Concerto Op. 7 No. 1 by Handel
Quintet for Piano and Winds No. 1. Largo Allegro Moderato by Mozart
Pour les agrements by Debussy"
Gymnopedie No. 1 by Erik Satie, Arrangement for alto saxophone and piano by Hernando Vitores
Piano quartet in G minor 2. Allegro ma non troppo by Brahms
Berceuse by Chopin
Quintet for piano and winds No. 1 largo allegro moderato by Mozart
Wind Quintet No. 1 Allegro ben moderato by Carl Nielsen
Diabeli Variations by Beethoven
Visual Examples of Seasonal Words
