Furyu no
Hajime ya! oku no
Ta-ue uta.
—Basho
Pristine elegance!
There, in the interior,
The rice-planting song.
One day Basho and a friend were having a discussion as to whether
elegance could be found in rural areas. While they were debating
the point, a beautiful song came from an adjoining field where
women were transplanting rice. Whereupon Basho composed
this haiku, thus indicating that elegance or refinement, so widely
regarded in the big city of Edo, actually had its beginning in the
rice-planting songs.