*Haiku*
Haiku and explanations from;

'HAIKU'
by R.H.BLYTH
THE HOKUSEIDO PRESS TOKYO
&
'The Essence of MODERN HAIKU'
by Seishi Yamaguchi
MANGAJIN,Inc.Atlanta


*************************************************


Green when created,
sea never changing color,
even in winter.
Seishi
Jap.=Genshi yori  ao-umi fuyu mo  iro kaezu
: mean :
Yoronto Island is a living coral reef.
The sea surrounding the island 
is a lovely emerald green.
That color has not changed since the island
was created.It does not change even in winter.


*************************************************


Festival pathos--
when even the peep-show scopes
are basmeared with fog.
Seishi
Jap.=Matsuri aware  nozoki no megane  kumoru sae
: mean :
They had a peep show device at the summer festival.
A scene of a drama could be seen, magnified through a convex lens.
When I looked through,the lens was fogged over.
Boys had clouded the lens by bringing their faces too close.
Festival pathos!


*************************************************


In a load's sanctum,
I adjust the winter hood
on someone's baby.
Seishi
Jap.=Hito no ko no  Zukin naoshite  tenshu no ue
: mean :
I had made my way up into the keep of Hakutei Castle,in Inuyama.
from which I could see Mount Haku,off to the west.
There was a baby on his mother's back,
wearing a hood that almost covered his eyes.
When I adjust it,he was pleased at seeing the light.


*************************************************


A soft little mass
of infant taking a nap,
snoozing on and on.
Seishi
Jap.=Yawarakaki  chigo no hirune no  tsuzukikeri
: mean :
A very young child who came to play
at my house is taking a nap.
A soft little lump of flesh is taking a nap,
from which he is not easily awaked.
A soft nap!


*************************************************


Thinking about him :
a cricket, chirping away,
looking at the ground.
Seishi
Jap.=Utsumukite  naku korogi no  koto omou
: mean :
I can hear a cricket chirping.
As I listen to him, I imagine his posture.
Of course he is looking down as he sighs.


*************************************************


At the deepest point
of grief,somebody nearby
breaks a withered branch.
Seishi
Jap.=Kanashisa no  kiwami ni tare ka  kareki oru
: mean :
I had suffered a terrible loss and was at the deepest point of grief.
When I felt I could bear it no longer,someone outside the house
snapped a dead,withered branch.
That sad sound made my grief-already at its deepest-
somehow even deeper.


*************************************************


Dig up its rice fields
and the land of Yamato
becomes new again.
Seishi
Jap.=Yamato mata  aratanaru kuni  ta o sukeba
: mean :
Yamato is an old land.
When I went there in the spring,they were tilling the fields.
The turned,tilled soil was new. The old land was dug,
the new earth appeared,and the land became new.
Year by year,age by age.


*************************************************


Here all of Japan
comes together to perform
its first pilgrimage.
Seishi
Jap.=Nippon ga  koko ni atsumaru  hatsumode
: mean :
The first pilgrimage of the year to the Inner Shrine at Ise.
As I walk toward the Main Hall,I pass returning pilgrims.
They are people who have come from all over,every corner of Japan.
All Japan gathers here.


*************************************************


Ice and water,
Their difference resolved,
Are friends again.
Teishitsu
Jap.=Uchitokete  kori to mizu no  nakanaori
: comment :
In spring,the ice melts,and throwing off its formal differences,
is once more reconciled to the water.
What is interesting here is the personification 
at such a low level of existence as ice and water.
Personification is not a so-called "figure of speech," 
but a realization that all things are personal,are mind,
that mind is material.
When  we understand this,material and spiritual,
their differences resolved,are friends again.


*************************************************


Every morning
In the sky above my roof,--
Is it the same skylark?
Joso
Jap.=Asagoto ni  onaji hibari ka  yane no sora
: comment :
The poet wishes that the bird which sings above
his house at day-break every day should somehow
or other belong to him,be his special skylark.
There is something pathetic in this weakness of mind,
but also something deeply human which Joso recognizes as poetic.
It is for this reason that he records
this apparently trivial and superficial thought.


*************************************************


The man who says,
"My children are a burden,"--
There are no flowers for him.
Basho
Jap.=Ko ni aku to  mosu hito ni wa  hana mo nashi


*************************************************


The frog
Looks at me,--
But with a sour face!
Issa
Jap.=Ware wo mite  nigai kao suru  kawazu kana
: comment :
There is a lack of human conceit,of self-centredness,
an emphasis on the frog rather than on himself,
that is characteristic of Issa.
Indeed,we feel that the frog is justified in looking at Issa
in the same way that the caterpillar looked at Alice.
How few people have been born into the world with enough sense
and enough humility to look into the countenance of a frog,
and feel sincerely,yet with humour,the frog's indifference,
its superciliousness. Issa's love of and interest in frogs may be
guaged from the fact that he wrote about three hundred haiku on them.


*************************************************


The camellia flower
Fell on the tatami,
Making a sound.
Shirao
Jap.=Oto nashite  tatami e ochiru  tsubaki kana
: comment :
This is a less dramatic,
more subdued and quietistic verse.


*************************************************


Under the cherry-blossoms,
None are
Utter strangers.
Issa
Jap.=Hana no kage  aka no tanin wa  nakari keri


*************************************************


"APPENDIX"

The TANKA(=Short Poem) of the present day :
"Salad Anniversary"
Machi Tawara

translated by
Juliet Winters Capenter


Exit
Door
Back