Reading Robert Frost(6)

(photo) blue morning glories, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan



Desert Places

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in the snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it-it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less-
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars-on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.



I think the key word of this poem is snow. Frost sees it as something negative. The snow makes him feel lonely and think it has no expression and nothing to express. The snow triggers him to imagine the empty spaces between stars and reminds him of his desert places in his mind. This poem is so dark. But I think Frost had a courage to listen to himself truthfully.

Reading Robert Frost(5)

(photo) a working man at the river, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan


Neither Out Far Nor In Deep


The people along the sand
All turn and look one way.
They turn their back on the land.
They look at the sea all day.

As long as it takes to pass
A ship keeps raising its hull;
The wetter ground like glass
Reflects a standing gull.


The land may vary more;
But wherever the truth may be―
The water comes ashore,
And the people look at the sea.


They cannot look out far.
They cannot look in deep.
But when was that ever a bar
To any watch they keep?


This is an interesting poem. There is a comparison between the sea and the land. The land symbolizes something that varies and the sea not varies. I think the poem expresses Frost's despair about civilization on the land. And he seems to try to search for hope in the sea without looking out far and looking in deep. The sea is the beginning of life and the end of life. Frost appears to be a pessimist but actually could be an optimist and humorist, reading the last two lines.

Reading Robert Frost(4)

(photo) an althaes called "sokobeni", that Rikyu(1522-1591）, a master of ceremonial tea, loved very much, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, japan




Acquainted With The Night


I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain ―and back in rain.
I have outwalked the further city light.

I hve looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-by;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.


We have been afraid of the night since the ancient age and managed to conquer it by various technologies. But the night and silence is the nature of the universe. The night doesn't have nothing, but the moon, namely time. I think those who are acquainted with the night might appreciate the solemnity of the universe beyond right and wrong.

Reading Robert Frost(3)

(photo) She is relaxed, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan


Dust of Snow


The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.


I like this poem. It often happens but we don't try to make poem on it. I think poets can find out poesie in the ordinary life. The theme of this poem is the interaction between the nature and human being. It reminds me that we are part of the nature. The nature is often the trigger that makes us break through the difficulties. Japanese mathematician OKA kiyoshi( 1901-1978）could solve the difficult mathematical question as soon as he saw the beautiful sea from his car.

Reading Robert Frost(2)

(photo) everyone has some reasons for being what he is, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan


Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.



I guess the poem expresses the dawn in the early spring. In this moment, the first green is coloured gold and the early leaf looks like a flower. I think the author has fine sensibility to the nature. But he seems to be sad because the moment is so short. Nothing gold can stay. Our lives are also short like the gold appearing in the dawn. But I like his thought 'nothing gold can stay.' It means something gold can't stay but it appears in the world again and again. I think our lives are also something gold in this sense.

Haiku in English(8)

(photo) red flowers in June, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan

Can words be as still
As the motionless trees,
In this solstice time?

John Bate, England

■I interpreted the phrase " in this solstice time" as the dynamism of the nature or the universe. Both of them are silent. Only human beings are noisy. The author compares words with the motionless trees. Words can't be as still as the trees. That's probably what he's saying. But how silent this haiku is!

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(13)

(photo) Houttuynia cordata, Matsudo, Chiba prefecture

2 travelling salesmen
passing each other
On a Western road

■This haiku symbolizes the American society very well. Salesmen are an essencial element in the capitalist society and the phrase "passing each other on a Western road" expresses wide-open spaces in U.S. I think this haiku has a loneliness in the modern world. Where did 2 salesmen go after passing each other?

Reading Robert Frost(1)

(photo) a sleeping man, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan


Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.



■This poem predicts the contemporary world. I think fire symbolizes evil human behaviors, especillay the war and ice the fear of the nature, the chage of climate in the modern terms. The two phrases "From what I've tasted of desire" and " I think I know enough of hate" are probably a pair. I can understand the relationship between fire and desire, but I can't hate and ice. This hate may mean human's hate for the nature or human's control over the nature as a thing or a object. The author is talking about the end of the world but it sounds like something humorous. I feel that he had a crude look at human beings. This poem reminds me of Issa's following haiku.

We are skeleton bones

even though we are here like this

the air in the evening

Haiku in English(7)

(photo) red flowers at the window, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan


Memories of sea
now have another master―
pearl necklace pawned

Clelia Ifrim
Bucharest, Romania

■The phrase memories of sea is beautiful. I think it means the author's memories and the pearl's. The pearl necklace that is memories both of her and sea have to have another master- pawnbroker. Did he feel guilty at robbing her of the treasure called memories?

Haiku in English(6)

(photo) red flowers, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan

nothing
to show for today
cassiopeia

John Martone
IL, U.S.A

■I feel vanity but this vanity means tiny thing because the author uses the word cassiopeia. Every human behavior is tiny bofore the great universe.

Haiku in English(5)

(photo) walking in the morning, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan

The jumping dolphines
their wet backbones reflecting
sunshine.

Frano Vlatkovic, Croatia

■It's a dynamic haiku. I can imagine the scene clearly. Verbs always play the important role in haikus because they express lives in the nature, including human beings. Lives never stop but are always moving. The words jumping and reflecting are used effectively in this haiku.

Haiku in English(4)

(photo) azalias, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan


In the front of sign-post
on a hot street
a snake halts.

Franno Vlatkovic, Croatia

■It's humorous because the snake apparently could read the sign-post. This haiku indicates the season of summer distinctly by the word a hot street. It's the rare case in the foreign haikus.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(12)

(photo) azaleas, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan


Dusk―the bird
on the fence
A contemporary of mine

■It's humorous and the author apparently feels familiar to the bird. His feeling resembles that of Issa, a famous Japanese haijinn in 18th century, who concidered small animals around him as his friends. He dindn't make a clear distinction between animals and human beings because he thought he could be reincarnated as an animal in the next life and the small animal that was before him could probably have been as a human in its previous birth. His thought was strongly influenced by the thought of the cycles of life in Buddhism. By the way, most Japanese people tend to believe in the though even now. It is true that is unscientific but the science has controlled, managed, and ruled the nature as tools, including human beings. We could have to use the science to coexist with the nature that has the same life as ours.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(11)

(photo) fresh green, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan



Early morning yellow flowers
―Thinking about
The drunkars of Mexico

■I'm interested in the combination of yellow flowers and the drunkars. I think yellow flowers symbolize the drunkars of Mexico. I guess there were some yellow flowers around the drunkars when he traveled in Mexico. Dash is used effectively. Before Dash, he descibes the real world and after dash, the world in his mind.

Haiku in English(3)

(photo) early summer flowers, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan


Father's Day
somewhere in the crematorium
there is a rose

John Parsons
Bungay, U.K

■I'm impressed by a rose. I think this rose is red. People place a white rose on their Father's grave in Father's day. But in this case, there is a rose somewhere in the crematorium. I think the author wants to make a rose symbolize the Father's life. A red rose means passion and love. His life could be full of passion and love too. Mybe the author imagine the scene in Father's Day, remenbering his father.

Haiku in English(2)

(photo) the good old days, in Shiraoka, Saitama prefecture, Japan


Before the rain
The wind dies down―
I compose my thoughts

Dragan J. Ristic, Serbia

■I think this haiku grasps the silent moment in the nature. Generally speaking, we can see some thoughts in our behaviors but not necessarily see some behaviors in our thoughts. His thouhgts could be independant of his behaviors. What thoughts did he start to have?

Haiku in English(1)

(photo)Iris, in Shiraoka, Saitama prefecture, Japan

cassiopeia
the drive-in movie's
lonely

John Martone
IL, USA

■This is a nice haiku. I feel deep lonliness of our spesies in the universe. I think it interested that it is near to Japanese haikus that avoid explanations.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(10)

(photo) early summer red flowers, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture,　Japan


The white chair is
holding its arms out
to Heaven―dandelions

■I can imagine the white chair is so comfortable. The auhtor may take a nap on it. The word dandelions is used effectively. The colour white symbolize the Heaven and his peaceful mind. And the dandelions seem to express the small but valuable happiness. In this way they are similar to violets that are often concidered as a symbol of familiarity and happiness in Japanese literatures. But Japanese haiku poets would write dandelion, not dandelions. The differnce is very interesting between the feelings of number. Japanese haiku tends to concentrate on the one thing, and English, German, and French haiku tend to express wide space in plural nouns.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(9)

(photo) recorder player in the early summer park, in Matsudo, Chiba prefectre, Japan


Spring night―
the neighbor hammering
in the new old house

■The new old house means the new old-fashoned house. On one hand , Spring night is full of the scent of many different flowers, and singns of lives. On the other hand, we feel melancholy in spring night. Mybe our body can't adjust to the changing climate from winter to spring. The sound of the neighbor's hammering sounds familiar and melancholy.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(8)

(photo) early summer flowers, in Matsudo, Chiba prefecture, Japan



After the shower
the red roses
in the green, green


■I think it beautiful to constract between the red of roses and the green of trees. This haiku is simple but is well elaborated. the phrase after the shower is effective. It describes the newer world after the shower using simple phrase of in the green, green.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(7)

(photo) children born to play under the fresh green, in Higashiohmiya, Saitama prefecture, Japan


The full moon ―
the cat gone ―
My sleeping mother

■I feel interested in the contrast between the cat gone and my sleeping mother. The cat has gone out in the moonlight, but my mother is still sleeping. My of my mother means the author standing near to his mother in the room, seeing the scene. The full moon seems to keep an eye on the cat and the mother.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(6)

(photo) fresh green, in Higashiohmiya, Saitama prefecture, Japan



The tree moving
in the moonlight
Wise to me

■This haiku is interestiong. I think there could be some interpretations on the haiku. It reminds me of the story by MIYAZAWA Kenji, famous Japanese poet and story teller.
He wrote an amusing story that a line of telegraph poles maches along the country road in the moonlight.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(5)

photo banksia rose



A bottle of wine,
a bishop―
Everything is God

■This is an interesting haiku. At first, I sympathized with his thought "Everything is God." I thought that it could be near to the Japanese way of thinking that " Everything are gods." This Japanese thought or feeling comes to a tolerant society in a way but often deprive people of ability to think about social problems logically or critically.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(4)

(photo) plum blossoms

Winter―that
sparrow's nest
Still empty

冬　それは
まだ雀の巣が
空ということ

■This haiku is so simple and beautiful. The dash after "Winter" means " MA" or " KIRE." However unfortunately it is used for a specific explanation of winter.

op. 1

(photo) untitled






GAZA 2009

by winter moon

There is not the poem here.
So this is not a poem.
Where is the poem?
In the sticking?
In the spilling-out?
In the opening?

There is not the poem here.

Woman's eyes
A collapsing back
Scattered sandals
The silence of the sky

I cannot
laugh,
lament,
sing,
and anger.

Snow in the night
is dizziness.
The Galaxy in winter
is tinnitus.

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(3)

(photo) citrus called Yuzu


Mule on the seashore
One thousand foot
Bridge above

海辺のスリッパ
それを跨いだ
一千の足

■I was impressed with his imagination that envisioned one thousand foot from a mule on the seashore. However I cannot understand the reason " one thousand foot bridge", not " one thousand feet bridges" is.

Sound and Vision

Time - Pink Floyd

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(2)

(photo) doves at the Edo River

Apassionata Sonata
― hiballs, gray
Afternoon in October

熱情ソナタ

ハイボール
10月の灰色の午後

■A happy new year.
I'm interested in the difference between the image of October in US and that in Japan. I cannot think October is a gray month. October in Japan is the month that has a clear large blue sky. The phrase " gray Afternoon in October " , I think, has the same kind of feelings as " The October Country" by Ray Bradbury has. I was attracted by the combination of three nouns in this haiku.

Sound and Vision
John Cage Sonata V

Haiku of Jack Kerouac(1)

(photo) The man who is waiting for passing trains on the overpass all afternoon

The clouds are
following each other
into Eternity

雲は
追いつ追われつ
永遠へ

■This haiku sounds to me to have a typical Western thought, using the phrase " into Eternity." I think one of the charms of this work is to express clouds dynamically.

Sound and Vision
Meredith Monk - Gotham Lullaby [experimental / contemporary]

Haiku of Richard Wright(68)

(photo) the mountaintop

That road is empty,
The one leading into hills
In autumn twilight.


その道は行く人なく
一本道の丘また丘
秋の暮


（Housai）
道いつぱいになつて来る牛と出逢つた

Cows coming to me,
Filling the road.

■Wright's haiku reminds me one of Basho:

The road -
Empty and
Autumn twilight.

I imagine a scene that hills ranges over there. I'm attracted to the silence in this haiku. Hohsai's haiku is full of cows. It's humorous.

Haiku of Richard Wright(67)

(photo) walking

A long autumn day:
A wind blowing from the west,
But none from the east.

長き秋の日
西から一陣の風
東からはなにも


（Hohsai）
秋日さす石の上に脊の児を下ろす

On the stone in the autumn sunshine
I put the child
From my back.

■I'm interested in " A long autunm day," because an autumn day in Japan is very short. The rhythm is impressed that " A wind blowing from the west, But none from the east" has. I think Hohsai's haiku has affection for the child. It seems to me that it was in a cold autumn day that he created the haiku.

Haiku of Richard Wright(66)

(photo) autumn leaves

From the scarecrow's sleeve
A tiny green leaf unfolds
On an oaken arm.

案山子の袖
そのオークの腕に
青い葉が一枚生えている

（Hohsai）
案山子の顔をこう書いてやらう

Let's make
The face of the scarecrow
Like this.

■Wright and Hohsai have good sense of humour. In particular, Wright finds humour in the scarecrow itself. I'm very impressed by his oaken scarecrow.

Haiku of Richard Wright(65)

(Photo) a laughing woman

Like a fishhook,
The sunflower's long shadow
Hoves in the lake.

釣竿のように
向日葵の長い影が
湖に伸びる

（Hohsai）
静かなるかげを動かし客に茶をつぐ

Moving calm shadow,
I pour the tea
For my visitor.


■Wright described " a fishhook," not " a fishing rod." It is inexplicable to me because a fishhook cannot make long shadow. But I think he successfully expressed the silence of the lake in a summer afternoon. On the other hand, Hohsai's calm shadow is moving. I'm interested in the state of his shadow.

Haiku of Richard Wright（64）

(photo) a well-brought-up cat

The cat's shining eyes
Are remarkably blue
Beside the jonquils.

猫の光る眼は
びっくりするほど青い
黄水仙のかたはら


（放哉）
どろぼう猫の眼と睨みあつてる自分であつた
the eyes of
the thief-cat
I glared at each other.

■Wright's expressions " remarkably blue" and " beside the jonquils" are impressive to me. There is contrast between blue and yellow. In Hohsai's haiku Hohsai himself comes. It's humorous.

Haiku of Richard Wright(63)

(photo) confederate rose

Dewdrop joins dewdrop
Till a petal holds a pool
Reflecting its rose.

露に露がうち重なって
花びらに水玉
その薔薇が映るまで

（放哉）
便所の落書が秋となり居る
The graffiti on the wall
Of the toilet
Going into autumn.

■Wright's haiku is beautiful. Everybody has seen this scene somewhere, and could easily image this pond on a petal. However can it reflect its rose? What was reflected might be the colour of it, not its shape. On the other hand, Hohsai felt an autumn flavor in the graffiti on the wall of his toilet. This graffiti has something different from yesterday's owing to the changing sunlight and atmosphere. Once I read it, I was deeply impressed.

Haiku of Richard Wright(62)

(photo) her mobile phone

Naked to the sky,
A village without a name
In the setting sun.

空はお見とおし
名もない村が
落日の中

（放哉）
夕日の中へ力いつぱい馬を追ひかける
I chase a horse
As fast as I can
In the setting sun.

■What attracted me most to the Wright's haiku is the phrase" Naked to the sky." The sky knows everything happening in the village during the day. The village is soon in the setting sun. And in it you chase a horse as fast as you can. "as fast as I can" is beautiful.

Haiku of Richard Wright(61)

(photo)The Great Buddha in Kamakura


The day is so long
That even noisy sparrows
Fall stragely silent.

日が永い
にぎやかな雀たちも
めずらしく静まり返っている

（放哉）
鳩がなくまの昼の屋根が重たい
I feel the roof in the noon heavy
In a while
For doves to pause to sing.

■I'm impressed by both these works because they express silence by common birds. I think Wright's haiku is about in the summer solstice and Hohsai's has a languid atmosphere in late spring. I'm interested in that they express silence in their scene by common birds' silence.

Haiku of Richard Wright(60)

(photo) summer boys

Sun is glinting on
A washerwoman's black arms
In cold creek water.

太陽がキラッと光る
洗濯女の黒い腕で
冷たい小川の中


（放哉）
血がにじむ手で泳ぎ出た草原

Swimming out of the grass
―　My bloody arms.

■Wright's haiku cannot get out of a common-sense world. I have examined his 60 haiku, and I found out he didn't have so many fine haiku. From now on, after I preselect his good haiku, I'll examine it. In the case of Hohsai, I have preselected his interesting haiku. It's natural I tend to appreciate his haiku.

Haiku of Ricard Wright(59)

（photo)summer festival

Gusty autumn rain
Swinging a yellow lantern
Over wet catttle.

突然の激しい秋雨が
黄色いランタンを揺らしている
濡れた牛の上

（放哉）
いつ迄も忘れられた儘で黒い蝙蝠傘

A black umbrella-
Having been abandoned
For a long time.

■Wright's haiku has a beautiful scene, but it is common as a haiku work. On the other hand, Hohsai's haiku can make us feel the shadow of rain by showing an abandoned black umbrella.

Haiku of Richard Wright(58)

(photo)three girls



Heaps of black cherries
Glittering with drops of rain
in the evening sun.


一山のブラックチェリーが
雨に濡れて輝く
夕陽の中


（放哉）
友の夏帽が新らしい海に行かうか

My friend's summer hat
is new-
Shall we go to the sea?

■Right's haiku is too beautiful for me to find amusement in it. If the haiku was written as a part of a longer poem, such as that of Trakl, I could take it more natural. From the pont of view, though Wright's haiku seems to be completed, I think there is something missing. On the other hand, Hohsai's haiku has completed poesy. His haiku doesn't need any more words.

Poem

(Photo)Untitled

Slightly

I imagine time for no one
That vanishes in rain,
And that appears when wisteria flowers swing slightly.
It doesn’t have any history,
Any result, any function, and any space.
It is outside meanings.

I think I know
Time for no one is
One for Creator’s laughing.
We could hear it for just a moment.
And we could see it,
If a frog found out himself.
But no one has had that time yet
Without those who have lived against history.

I have been no one for time
For a long, long time.

Haiku of Richard Wright(57)

(photo) Even a cat in Japan looks Japanese.

Sleety rain at night
Seasoning swelling turnips
With a tangy taste.

夜の霙雨
畑の蕪を
辛くする


（放哉）
夜の木の肌に手を添へて待つ

I'm waiting,
Holding my hand to the surface
Of the night tree.

■Wright's haiku has some kind of sense of living, because his motive is swelling turnips. I feel HAIMI in his work which is the sense of human living and one of important factors in haiku. On the other hand, Hohsai's haiku has some kind of poetry. I feel he is not waiting for someone or something, but for himself.

Haiku of Richard Wright(56)

(photo)hollyhock blossoms

The cool green melon
Made me trace my forefinger
Along its whole length.


冷えた青いメロン
人差し指で
ひとまわりなぞってみた


（放哉）
大空のました帽子かぶらず

Just under the blue sky
I don't need
a hat.

■Nature causes both Wright and Hohsai to act. Wright traces his forefinger along a melon's whole length. Hohsai stops wearing his hat. I feel that Wright has some kind of desire and Hohsai doesn't have one. Hohsai also made the following work:
The way water flows
In the night
When murder has been committed.

This haiku reminds me the terror in Akihabara the other day. It rained on the following day. The rain in Akihabara must have appeared different from usual.

Haiku of Richard Wright(55)

(photo) A hydrangea in the rain

(Original)
Shaking the water
Off his dripping body,
The dog swims again.

ずぶ濡れの体
ぶるぶるっとさせて
犬はもう一度泳ぎに


（放哉）
いつしかついて来た犬と浜辺に居る
I find myself
On the beach with the dog
That has followed me without notice.

■I have seen the scene of Wright's haiku many times. In this way, this doesn't have novelty. However it is infrequent for a dog to swim again because dogs dislike water. This may be a rare case without a dog that is trained to save drowning persons. On the other hand, Housai expresses deep loneliness in dry humor. The lonely dog that followed the lonely man to get to the beach: it might smell the same smell in the man as its.

Haiku of Richard Wright(54)

(photo) early summer flowers

(Original)
A September rain
Tumbling down in drops so big
They wobble as they fall.

九月の雨は
突然の大粒で
ゆらゆらと落ちてくる

（Hohsai）
久し振りの雨の雨だれの音
The sounds of raindrops
On the first rainy day
In a long time.




■I couldn't quite see the scene of Wright's haiku, though I comprehend it is not a heavy rain. When here in Japan big raindrops begin to fall suddenly, it often become a heavy rain. "wobble" doesn't mean a heavy rain , but big drops fall while moving unsteadly from side to side. I can't imagine the scene. In the case of Hohsai, I can share his feelings of delight about the first sounds of randrops in a long time. It sounds attractive to me because I have experiences that it healed me when I was out of shape.

Haiku of Richard Wright(53)

(photo) In gloves

A sparrow's feather
On a barb of rusty wire
In the sizzling heat.

錆びた針金がめくれあがって
雀の羽が引っかかっている

炎天


(Hohsai）
雀等いちどきにいんでしまった

All sparrows
have flied away
at the same time.

■It sounds to me that Wright's feater left after Hohsai's sparrows flied away.

Haiku of Richard Wright(52)

(photo) The Sky of Cherry Blossoms

(Original)
Gazing at her face
Reflected in the spring pond,
The girl grimaces.

(Japanese version)
女の子が春の池に
映った自分の顔を見つめている
しかめっつら


(放哉）
雪の戸をあけてしめた女の顔

(Hohsai)
Facial expression of a woman
Who opened and closed
The door to look at snow.

■Wright's work seems to express a girl who is witty. She might once feel an impulse to break her straight face reflected on the pond. On the other hand, Hohsai catches the woman's instant look in checking snow. Probably she was asked the depth of snow by her child and others. It sounds to me that she is use to and is unconcerned with snow.

Haiku of Ricard Wright(51)

(Original)
As the sun goes down,
A green melon splits open
And juice trickes out.


日が暮れると
青いメロンが割れて
汁が溢れた


(Hohsai）
財布はたいてしまひつめたい鼻だ

(English version)
I've spent my last penny,
And my nose is cold.

■At first, I don't think Wright's haiku is so good. But I read it several times, and I burst out laughing. I think it has dry humor. In the case of Hohsai's haiku, he laughs about himself. His haiku is sort of self-mocking. But laughing about oneself includes the momenta of consideration for others, relativization of secular values, and self-emancipation rather than simple self-mockery. So I think his haiku means something profound.

Haiku of Ricard Wright(50)

(Original)
One magnolia
Landed upon another
In the dew-wet grass.


(Japanese version)
木蓮が木蓮に
散る
露の草


(Hohsai）
木蓮一日うなづいて居て暮れた

(English version)
Magnolias-
I have nodded all day long
And the sun has gone down.

■Magnolia is a spring word. Wright's haiku has a vivid image as a poem. Did Hohsai talk to somebody or nodded to nature around him? His haiku is humorous.

Haiku of Ricard Wright(49)

(Original)
Burning autumn leaves,
I yearn to make the bonfire
Bigger and bigger.


(Japanese version)
秋　燃える葉
焚き火よ
もっと燃えろもっと


(Housai）
女よ女よ
年取るな

(English version)
Women oh, women!
Don't get old!

■Wright's haiku has really sent me after a long interval. That is attractive as a poem. Hohsai has some own haiku comparable to it. However, I ventured to select his haiku that seemed to have no relation with it. Nevertheless his haiku, I think, has harmony with "burning autumn leaves", because he wishes women were elegant forever.

Haiku of Rchard Wright(48)

(Original)
A bursting ripe plum
Forms a pool upon a leaf
From which sparrows drink.


(Japanese version)
熟れたプラムがはじけて
葉の上に汁が溜まっている。
雀たちがそれを飲む。


(Hohsai）
雨の幾日がつづき雀と見てゐる

(English version)
During some rainy days
I watch rain
With sparrows.

■Wright's work has affection for sparrows, but he considers them as sparrows. Hohsai watches rain in the same eyes as sparrows. He has no dualism between human beings and sparrows.

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.

Haiku of RICHARD WRIGHT(46)

(Original)
A spring mountain holds
The foundations of a house
Long since tumbled down.


(Japanese version)
春の山
倒壊して久しいのに
家の礎が残っている


(Hohsai）
春の山のうしろから烟が出だした

(English version)
From behind
A spring mountain
Smoke begins to climb.

■Wright's motif is a ruin. The combination of a spring mountain and a tumbled-down house reminds us of that of life and death. On the other hand, the work of Hohsai is easygoing and humorous. And we can see a motion in it like a animation. A phrase" from behind" gets a laugh by itself.

Haiku of RICHARD WRIGHT(45)

(Original)
As though for always,
Each petal lit by the sun,‐
Apple blossoms!


(Japanese version)
昔からそうだったように
どの花びらも陽に輝いている
林檎の花


(山頭火）
花いばら、ここの土とならうよ

(Santohka)
Rose blossoms
Let's return to
Dust here.

■Wright sings the life of apple blossoms. His haiku is bright and positive. The phrase" for always" makes me feel endless time. In the case of Santohka, he stares at death. If the pose is given after "Rose blossoms", the death is his one. If the phrase "Rose blossoms" means talking to it, the death is his and the blossons'. Life someday goes to death, and it comes back to the ground as new life. I feel such a cycle of life about two haiku.