Red berries on branch in late winter (Maria@Unsplash)
Last Tuesday, I was reading a haiku book that I got from the mail, a book that I used to have in my bookshelf many years ago but got lost somehow and now I have it back again.
And the first haiku is:
何事も なくて春たつ あしたかな
Nothing happening
Yet spring has come
On this morning
春たつ=春立つ is the Japanese action word for the Chinese 立春, which marks the first day of spring. This falls around February 4 so spring has gone by without anything happening, according to Shiro, the Edo-period haikuist.
February 4 feels a little too chilly for the start of spring, don’t you think?