Yosa Buson wrote “The light of a candle is transferred to another candle — spring twilight,” a haiku often translated under the title “Lighting One Candle.”
The poem captures a small, almost unnoticed action: one flame passing to another as daylight fades in spring. Its emotional force comes from the contrast between the physical simplicity of lighting a candle and the larger ideas it can suggest, including continuity, renewal, teaching, and the transmission of inspiration.
Buson was both a poet and a painter. Born in 1716, he became one of the leading haiku poets of the eighteenth century and is especially admired for visual precision. His background in painting influenced his poetry, which frequently presents carefully framed scenes, subtle changes of light, and vivid spatial details.
Readers sometimes confuse Buson with Bashō because both are central figures in classical Japanese haiku. Bashō is more commonly associated with travel diaries and austere landscape meditation, while Buson’s work is often noted for painterly imagery. This candle poem is a particularly clear example of Buson’s ability to make a brief visual moment feel symbolic without becoming abstract.