Princess of Light-scattering Bamboo

Chinese ink painting, artist unknown
Metropolitan Museum NY

One of my favourite spots at Trebah is the "Bamboozle", a maze of paths through a grove of bamboo alongside the stream, about half way down the valley.

Bamboo is such a magical and mysterious plant, in so many ways....

It plays a part in the creation myths of several oriental cultures, perhaps because of the almost miraculous speed with which it emerges from the ground and reaches its full height - in some cases as much as 30 metres - in one short growing season.

Kaguya-hime,Hiroshige/Yasubei
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The oldest known story in Japanese - or at least the first to be written down -  is the Taketori Monogatari (Tale of the Bamboo Cutter), about a childless old man who discovers a baby girl after cutting open a culm of bamboo in the forest. He names her Nayotake-no-Kaguya-hime (Princess of Flexible Bamboo Scattering Light) and she grows into a beautiful young woman who attracts many suitors. In true fairytale style she fends these off by setting them impossible tasks.

But whenever she sees the full moon, her eyes fill with tears, and eventually she reveals that this is because she is no earthly girl but an exile from her true home on the moon. You can find out how the story ends here.

Bamboo groves have an extraordinary quality of light that makes almost anything seem possible - something that the film director Ang Lee uses to great effect in a famous gravity-defying fight sequence in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. They also have a sound all of their own - a constant soft whisper as the wind rustles their leaves.

Basho, the great Japanese haiku poet, had this somewhat cryptic advice: "Learn of the pine from the pine; learn of the bamboo from the bamboo."

What I think he meant by this is that one should attend closely to whatever it is one is writing about - the thing itself rather than all the various trains of thought that may be set off by it. Of course, it's not the only way to write poems - and trains of thought can carry one to interesting and unexpected destinations. But focusing simply and solely on one's senses can allow one to notice things that are otherwise easily overlooked.

Here's a seasonal bamboo haiku by another master of the form, Issa:

newborn bamboo
straight up the morning sun
climbing