君や蝶我や荘子が夢心
kimi ya cho ware ya Souji ga yumegokoro

you’re the butterfly
I’m Chuang-tzu's
dream essence†
—Basho

In haiku the butterfly is not only a beautiful insect, but it is also a reference to the Taoist idea of questioning the reality of the Self, famously summed up by Chuang-tzu‡:

"Am I a Man”, he thought,
"who dreamed that I was a butterfly?
Or am I butterfly, dreaming that I am a man?

Often references in haiku are fairly subtle, but Basho is being quite explicit in this one. But we might forgive him for being so direct; Basho was so inspired by Chuang-tzu that he never traveled without the philosopher's book, one of the few things he took with him in his wanderings.

Incidentally, if you are wondering where Chuang-tzu is in the Japanese text up there, his name 荘子 is pronounced Souji in Japanese.

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Footnotes:

†: Most translations of this haiku give that last line (夢心 yumegokoro) as "dream heart". Kokoro has the meaning of mind as well as heart and what's more, in zen it has the sense of universal mind, not just yours or mine. As Shunryn Suzuki Roshi says:

The mind which is always on your side is not just your mind, it is universal mind, always the same, not different from another’s mind. It is Zen mind. It is big, big mind. This mind is whatever you see—this mind is at the same time everything.

The closest word that captures the full meaning of the word may be simply life, which is both objective (all life) and subjective (me), but that word has its own problems. I chose essence to convey this meaning, but unfortunately it is really hard to capture without a lot of background, as I am trying to give a hint of here.

I'm open to suggestions for better words in this case.

‡: These days you may see his name romanized as Zhuangzi, but I think most English speakers are much more familar with the old Wade-Giles romanization Chuang-tzu.

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Don't miss other great haiku in the Haiku of Japan series!

#1–10 — Haiku of Japan, Collection #1
#11 — Her Day Off
#12 — Autumn Crow
#13 — Faint Footprints
#14 — Alone on the Road
#15 — Autumn Begins
#16 — Early Morning Moon Viewing
#17 — Mistaken for a Scarecrow
#18 — The Galactic River
#19 — The Love of Cats
#20 — Autumn Waterfall
#21 — The Thief and the Moon
#22 — My Frozen Balls
#23 — Saké Waves
#24 — Friends with the Moon
#25 — Falling Flower
#26 — Winter Rain and No Hat
#27 — Sleeping Boy
#28 — Reward of Persimmons
#29 - Chestnut Worm
#30 - Drunken Leaf Watching

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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.