Summer is over? Or is it? The calendar and our senses disagree.

By the Japanese almanac, autumn started two days ago, on the eighth, was the start of Risshū (立秋), the first microseason of Autumn. Historically, even back in the days before global warming, August 8th was still hot, yet it was considered the turning point: past the peak of the heat when gradual signs of the true autumn will daily start to appear. In otherwords, it's all downhill from here.

Well, that was the idea way back when, anyway. I'm not sure if it still holds very well these days, when the temperature of summer has swelled up much higher than it once was and seems to linger on far longer. Last year it was still pretty hot even into December, and this year is shaping up to be much the same.

Reflecting on this dissonance inspired the above haiku. After I wrote it, it reminded me very much of a similar haiku from Bashō, which probably means mine was subconsciously influenced by his. His was written on a day long ago when the solar-based Japanese almanac didn't quite line up with the lunar year; according to the almanac, spring had started, but according to the moon, New Years was still two days away. He found the situation amusing because the image is that the first day of the year was the first day of spring, so he wrote the following:

春や来し年や行きけん小晦日
haru ya koshi toshi ya yukiken kotsugomori

is spring here?
is the year over already?
second-to-last-day

Of course in Bashō's day everyone would have been aware of the Japanese almanac and would have gotten his little joke, whereas most of my readers probably have no idea what I'm talking about. Hmm... I suppose there is humor in that situation too!

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.