Mijika yo ya!
Ashiato asaki
Yui-ga-hama.
—Buson
How brief is this life!
Faint footprints on the sands of
Yui-ga-hama.
The name Yui-ga-hama literally means “ Hotspring Beach.” In
Japan, a volcanic country, there are a number of places where hot
water wells up through the sand, but in the town of Kamakura at
its southern boundary, there is a beach known as “ Yui-ga-hama.”
The word jo -f£ in the first line translated “ life,” has the
meaning of “ world ” or “ era.”
The poet Buson’s observation on the shortness of life em
phasizes extinction or obliteration of personality, a Buddhist
teaching. By way of contrast, a hundred years later the American
poet Longfellow sang of “ footprints on the sands of time ” left
by great men, which can be a guide and encouragement to all who
come afterward.