Haiku of Richard Wright(47)

(Original)
The spring lingers on
In the scent of a damp log
Rotting in the sun.


(Japanese version)
春去らず
太陽に焼かれて
湿気た丸太が饐えた匂いを放つ



(Hohsai）
何か求むる心海へ放つ

(English version)
Loose the mind
In the sea
That asks for something.

■The smell of a danmp log, that I know well, since I played near a sawmill in my childhood, doesn't make us feel badly. Wright feels in the scent spring doesn't have gone and summer not come. In that sense his haiku can be said to be sensitive. On the other hand, the work of Hohsai seems both concerned with and not at all with it. However, his haiku has something to make us be given pause. I don't know if " ask for" is caused by human nature or is accelerated by the modern age, but I know well we " ask for" something every day and night. Or it might be better to say that we are forced to "ask for". The work of Hohsai suggests the sea is the beginning and end of life and has receptiveness beyond life and death. It is understandable through it why we sometimes have a wild urge to see the sea.