Sarah Brown
What leaf? What mushroom? is a translation of a seventeenth-century haiku by Matsuo Bashō, featuring a mushroom and a leaf. The translation is attributed to the American composer John Cage, who was a lover of fungi. Cage's interpretation of the haiku explores the multiplicity of meanings contained in its seventeen syllables, made possible by its ambiguous syntax. The phrase What leaf? What mushroom? has also been used to refer to a leafy green plant called the mushroom herb, which has a distinctive mushroom-like flavor.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Original Haiku | matsutake ya shiranu ki no ha no hebari tsuku |
| Classical Translation | Matsutake; and on it stuck the leaf of some unknown tree |
| Translation by Toru Takemitsu | Mushroom does not know that leaf is sticking on it |
| Translation by John Cage | That that’s unknown brings mushroom and leaf together |
| Cage's Favorite Translation | What leaf? What mushroom? |
| Author of the Haiku | Matsuo Basho |
| Profession | Poet-saint, Haiku master |
| Century | Seventeenth |
| Plant | Mushroom herb (Rungia klossii) |
| Description | A leafy green plant with a distinctive mushroom-like flavor |
| Height | 24 inches (61 cm) |
| Soil | Rich soil with compost |
| Location | Partial shade or light sunlight |
| Irrigation | Regular irrigation |
| Climate | Tropical |
| Nutrients | Calcium, protein, iron, beta-carotene, vitamins A and C |
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What You'll Learn
John Cage's translation of Basho's haiku
John Cage, the American composer and visual artist, had a surprising mushroom obsession. His interest in mushrooms began during the Great Depression when he was living in Carmel and struggling financially. He recalled, "I didn’t have anything to eat... So I picked one of the mushrooms and went to the public library and satisfied myself that it was not deadly, that it was edible, and I ate nothing else for a week." This marked the beginning of his journey as an amateur mushroom hunter, which soon became more than just a hobby.
Cage's interest in mushrooms extended beyond their culinary appeal to their role as a source of creative inspiration. He was particularly drawn to the haiku poem form because of its connection to the seasons, and he believed that mushrooms, being associated with autumn, would feature prominently in haikus. This led him to discover a 17th-century poem by the Japanese poet and saint, Matsuo Bashō, that featured both a mushroom and a leaf.
Cage first read the Japanese-language original before offering his own translations. His favourite interpretation was the whimsical "What leaf? What mushroom?". This translation captures the essence of Cage's playful and profound engagement with the natural world, reflecting his belief that mushrooms offered an escape from the pre-cast strictures of logic and reason.
Cage's translation of Bashō's haiku highlights the ambiguous syntax inherent in the original poem. By destabilizing the syntax and eliminating words, Cage invites readers to explore a multiplicity of meanings within the sparse framework of the haiku. This exploration of linguistic possibilities is further evident in his 1974 work, "Empty Words," where he employs aleatory methods to deconstruct the journals of Henry David Thoreau.
Beyond his artistic contributions as a pioneer of percussion music and inventor of prepared piano, John Cage's fascination with mushrooms adds a unique dimension to his legacy. His translation of Bashō's haiku serves as a testament to his ability to find beauty and meaning in the interplay between nature, language, and art.
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John Cage's mushroom obsession
John Cage's obsession with mushrooms began in the 1930s during the Great Depression. Unable to afford food, the artist foraged for mushrooms in the woods around his home in Carmel, California. He took one to the public library, identified it as edible, and ate it exclusively for about a week. This marked the start of a lifelong pursuit of the edible and exotic.
Cage's fascination with fungi was far from amateurish. He once poisoned himself and six of his friends with a dish of hellebore, which they had mistaken for skunk cabbage. Despite this brush with mortality, Cage's enthusiasm for mycology remained undimmed. He went on to teach a class on mushroom identification at the New School in New York City in 1959, and in the 1960s, he supplied New York restaurants like the Four Seasons with his pickings. He also co-founded the New York Mycological Society.
Cage's obsession extended beyond the culinary. He saw foraging as a way of balancing the "involvement with chance" in his compositional work. Hunting for mushrooms, he wrote, was a "life and death matter of winning and losing". In 1959, Cage appeared on an Italian game show called Lascia o Raddoppia (Double or Nothing), where he chose mushrooms as his specialist subject. He won the top prize of $10,000, which he used to buy a new piano and a Volkswagen bus for his partner Merce Cunningham's dance company.
Cage's fascination with fungi was lifelong and well-documented. He wrote in his diary: "Often I go into the woods thinking, after all these years, I ought finally to be bored with fungi. But coming upon just any mushroom in good condition, I lose my mind all over again." His love of mycology was explored in a 2019 double-volume publication, John Cage: A Mycological Foray - Variations on Mushrooms, which included photographs from his personal collection.
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The original Japanese haiku by Matsuo Basho
Matsuo Bashō was a 17th-century Japanese poet-saint and lay Zen monk, often regarded as a master of Hokku and Renga. He is known for his haikus, one of which is the inspiration behind the title "What Leaf? What Mushroom?".
The original Japanese haiku by Matsuo Bashō, which is the source of inspiration for the title, is as follows:
> "matsutake ya
> shiranu ki no ha no
> hebari tsuku"
This has been translated in various ways, including:
> "Matsutake; and on it stuck the leaf of some unknown tree."
Another translation attempts to capture the multiple interpretations that can be derived from the haiku:
> "That that’s unknown brings mushroom and leaf together."
The Matsutake mushroom is a highly prized variety in Japan, known for its thick, fibrous white flesh, and earthy, spicy flavour and aroma. They are said to favour pine trees and are the first living thing to emerge from a forest after it has been obliterated.
> "Mount Tsukuba was the home of the Shinto gods
> Located northeast of Tokyo, Edo, which, in Basho’s day, was the seat of political power."
> "A green willow, dripping down into the mud, at low tide.
> A clear waterfall — into the ripples fall green pine-needles
> Overhanging pine… adding its mite of needles to the waterfall."
> "Spring air — Woven moon and plum scent."
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The translations suggested by Toru Takemitsu and John Cage
John Cage, the celebrated American composer, had a lifelong passion for mycology. He once appeared on an Italian television quiz show called Lascia o Raddoppia? (Double or Nothing) in 1959, where he performed several new sound pieces and answered questions on mushrooms, his specialist subject. Cage won the top prize of $10,000, proving himself to be a "real mushroom expert". He also taught a course on mushroom identification at the New School for Social Research in New York and led mushroom foraging trips for students.
Cage's passion for mushrooms extended beyond hobby and expertise; it influenced his music. He wanted his compositions to be an exploration of sound and silence, rather than a means of expression. He used chance operations to create pieces, attempting to demilitarize" language by releasing it from syntax.
Cage's interest in mushrooms began during the Depression when he was living in Carmel and had very little to eat. He believed that "much can be learned about music by devoting oneself to the mushroom". He was fascinated by the elusive quality of wild mushrooms, which he attributed to a complex web of chance events. Hunting mushrooms, for him, required a particular kind of attention to the here and now of the encounter.
Cage's friend, the composer Toru Takemitsu, shared a similar interest in Zen philosophy and traditional Japanese culture. Takemitsu was a largely self-taught Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. He is known for combining elements of oriental and occidental philosophy and for fusing sound with silence. He composed several hundred independent works of music, scored more than ninety films, and published twenty books. He was also a founding member of the Jikken Kōbō (Experimental Workshop) in Japan, a group of avant-garde artists.
Cage and Takemitsu's shared interest in Zen philosophy and mushroom hunting led them to collaborate on a translation of a Basho haiku about mushrooms. Cage initially struggled to find an adequate translation, but Takemitsu suggested: "Mushroom does not know that leaf is sticking to it". Cage later came up with two translations: "That that's unknown brings mushroom and leaf together", and his favourite, "What leaf? What mushroom?".
This haiku, with its ambiguous syntax, encapsulates Cage's interest in chance and multiplicity of meanings. The translations offered by both composers highlight the interplay between the mushroom and the leaf, each bringing their unique interpretations to the haiku.
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The implications of John Cage's work 'Empty Words'
John Cage, the avant-garde composer, had a deep passion for mycology, or the study of mushrooms. This passion was sparked by a brush with poverty during the Great Depression, when he happened upon mushrooms while living in Carmel and "didn't have anything to eat". Cage's interest in mushrooms was further fuelled by a haiku by seventeenth-century poet-saint Matsuo Bashō, which featured a mushroom and a leaf. Cage's favourite translation of the haiku was "What leaf? What mushroom?".
Cage's fascination with mycology extended beyond the culinary and the poetic; he believed that there were parallels between the unstructured way mushrooms sprout up haphazardly and the free-thinking nature of his music. This belief is reflected in his 1974 work, "Empty Words", in which he uses aleatory methods, or chance operations, to systematically disassemble the journals of Henry David Thoreau. "Empty Words" is both text and score, designed to turn language into music. Each of its four parts, or "lectures", is composed of at least four thousand chance events dictated by throwing the I Ching. The lectures progressively eliminate sentences, phrases, words, syllables, and letters, with the final lecture containing only letters.
The implications of Cage's work "Empty Words" are far-reaching. By destabilizing and eliminating words, phrases, and sentences, Cage created a work that highlights the multiplicity of meanings that can be derived from ambiguous syntax. This exploration of language and chance operations challenges traditional notions of music and composition, reflecting Cage's dissatisfaction with the state of music composition at the time. "Empty Words" also blurs the boundaries between music and nature, as Cage intended for ambient sounds to mingle with the linguistic "music" of the work, mirroring Thoreau's belief that music could be found in the sounds of nature.
Furthermore, "Empty Words" invites the audience to embrace silence and the absence of traditional musical elements. Cage's incorporation of long periods of silence within the work allows for ambient sounds to intervene and for the mind to wander, creating a meditative and contemplative experience. This aspect of "Empty Words" reflects Cage's belief in the calming and reassuring nature of words emptied of meaning, providing a respite from the constant bombardment of words and information in daily life.
Overall, the implications of John Cage's "Empty Words" lie in its exploration of language, chance, and the boundaries between music and nature. By embracing ambiguity, silence, and unconventional methods of composition, Cage created a work that challenges traditional notions of music and offers a unique auditory experience that encourages meditation and a different way of perceiving the world.
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Frequently asked questions
"What leaf? What mushroom?" is a loose interpretation of a haiku by seventeenth-century poet-saint Matsuo Bashō, which features a mushroom and a leaf.
The translation was done by the celebrated American composer John Cage, who was a lover of fungi.
The original haiku, written in Japanese, is "Matsutake ya shiranu ki no ha no hebari tsuku", which is classically translated as: "Matsutake; and on it stuck the leaf of some unknown tree."
