: Falling upon earth, Pure water spills from the cup of the camellia.At first glance, “Falling Upon Earth” offers a meditative reflection on the wonders of nature. The poem invites contemplation on the beauty of the camellia blossom and implicitly situates the tropical Asiatic evergreen tree in a calm, rural setting in Japan among the hidden forces of nature. Yet the power of Basho's haiku clearly emanates from his meticulous selection of words, his fleeting yet evocative imagery, and the ambiguity resulting from words having multiple meanings. The power word of the first line is falling. The ambiguity of who or what is falling immediately challenges meaning and entices the reader's active participation in the poem. In Japanese literature, the camellia blossom is often used as a symbolic representation of the samurai, a professional soldier of the feudal military aristocracy of Japan, whose life, like that of the camellia, was often brilliant but brief. The falling of the flower takes on an allegorical dimension since Basho once trained in the service of a young samurai master who died unexpectedly. Basho grieved deeply and renounced his own samurai status. Thus, the implication of the camellia blossom moving abruptly from a state of natural beauty and vigor to one of quiet, somber death invites speculation on life's brevity, as well as the need to recognize and appreciate the rich, evocative images in nature. Likewise, while the word earth overtly suggests an objective description of nature, in fact, Basho might have selected ground or soil, with the apparent implication of a hard, flat, non-receptive surface. However, he skillfully positions the word earth to evoke connotations of the earth mother as receiver or absorber of the pure water that spills from the camellia, an image that immediately softens the ominous tone in lines one and two. Earth becomes the immediate vessel and eventual transmitter of the pure water of th...
