Haiku of RICHARD WRIGHT(38)

(Original)

That abandoned house,
With its yard of fallen leaves,
In the setting sun.


(Japanese version)

あの廃屋の
庭に落葉
落日


（放哉）

とかげの美しい色がある廃庭

(Hosai)

The abandoned yard,
With the beautiful color
Of a lizard.

Hosai OZAKI(1885-1926) is a popular Japanese haiku poet who is one of the trailblazers for free-rhythm haikus.

■The work of Wright has a traditional sense of beauty that can go back to that of Poe, Baudelaire, Trakl and so on. It evokes a kind of nostalgia, because it expresses what is going to the ground. From the perspective of a haiku, however, this work is too pathetic and perfect. In other words, the key phrases of " abandoned house", " fallen leaves", and " the setting sun" are so close each other in their common images that the readers can not feel surprised. In the case of the work of Hosai, it catches us off balance. He found out the beauty of a lizard in the abandoned yard. Perhaps the body of it reflected the sun light brilliantly. The haiku of Hosai has its own sense of beauty and is interesting in its texture.