Please notice that Haiku-poems are written under different rules and in many
languages. For translated Haiku-poems, the translator must decide whether he
should obey the rules strictly, or if he should present the exact essence of
the Haiku. For Haiku-poems originally written in english, the poet should be
more careful. These are the difficulties, and the pleasure of Haiku.
Akutagawa,
Ryunosuke. (1892-1927).
Akutagawa wrote "Rashomon",
"The Nose", "The Handkerchief", "Hell
Screen ", "Flatcar" and "Kappa".
He didn't start writing Haiku before 1919, under the pseudonym Gaki.
- Green frog,
Is your body also
freshly painted?
- Sick and feverish
Glimpse of cherry blossoms
Still shivering.
Anonymous.
- Without flowing wine
How to enjoy lovely
Cherry blossoms?
Basho,
Matsuo. (1644-1694).
The name Bashó (banana tree) is a sobriquet he adopted around 1681 after moving into a hut with a banana tree alongside. He was called Kinsaku
in childhood and Matsuo Munefusa in his later days.
Basho's father was a low-ranking samurai from the Iga Province. To be a samurai,
Basho serviced for the local lord Todo Yoshitada (Sengin). Since Yoshitada
was fond of writing haikai, Basho began writing poetry under the name
Sobo.
During the years, Basho made many travels through Japan, and one of the most
famous went to the north, where he wrote Oku
No Hosomichi (1694). On his last trip, he died in Osaka, and his last
haiku indicates that he was still thinking of traveling and writing poetry
as he lay dying:
- Fallen sick on a journey,
In dreams I run wildly
Over a withered moor.
At the time of his death, Basho had more than 2000 students.
- An old pond!
A frog jumps in-
The sound of water.
- The first soft snow!
Enough to bend the leaves
Of the jonquil low.
- In the cicada's cry
No sign can foretell
How soon it must die.
- No one travels
Along this way but I,
This autumn evening.
- In all the rains of May
there is one thing not hidden -
the bridge at Seta Bay.
- The years first day
thoughts and loneliness;
the autumn dusk is here.
- Clouds appear
and bring to men a chance to rest
from looking at the moon.
- Harvest moon:
around the pond I wander
and the night is gone.
- Poverty's child -
he starts to grind the rice,
and gazes at the moon.
- No blossoms and no moon,
and he is drinking sake
all alone!
- Won't you come and see
loneliness? Just one leaf
from the kiri tree.
- Temple bells die out.
The fragrant blossoms remain.
A perfect evening!
Buson, Yosa. (1716-84).
- At the over-matured sushi,
The Master
Is full of regret.
- Pressing Sushi;
After a while,
A lonely feeling
- A whale!
Down it goes, and more and more
up goes its tail!
Etsujin.
- Covered with the flowers,
Instantly I'd like to die
In this dream of ours!
Hashin
- No sky
no earth - but still
snowflakes fall
Issa.
(1762-1826).
- In my old home
which I forsook, the cherries
are in bloom.
- A giant firefly:
that way, this way, that way, this -
and it passes by.
- Right at my feet -
and when did you get here,
snail?
- My grumbling wife -
if only she were here!
This moon tonight...
- A lovely thing to see:
through the paper window's hole,
the Galaxy.
- A man, just one -
also a fly, just one -
in the huge drawing room.
- A sudden shower falls -
and naked I am riding
on a naked horse!
Kato, Shuson
- I kill an ant
and realize my three children
have been watching.
Kawahigashi, Hekigodo. (1873-1937).
- From a bathing tub
I throw water into the lake -
slight muddiness appears.
Kójó
- Night, and the moon!
My neighbor, playing on his flute -
out of tune!
Murakami, Kijo. (1865-1938).
- First autumn morning:
the mirror I stare into
shows my father's face.
- The moment two bubbles
are united, they both vanish.
A lotus blooms.
Natsume,
Soseki. (1867-1916)
Soseki's debut came in 1905 with "I
Am a Cat ". In 1907 he resigned his post at
Tokyo University as Professor in English, to devote his entire time to the
writing of
novels. His writings include "The Three-Cornered World" (1906), "The Wayfarer"
(1912-13)
"Kokoro
" (1914), and "The
Grass on the Wayside" (1915).
- On New Year's Day
I long to meet my parents
as they were before my birth.
- The crow has flown away:
swaying in the evening sun,
a leafless tree.
Raizan.
- You rice-field maidens!
The only things not muddy
Are the songs you sing.
Ryusui. (1691-1758).
- In all this cool
is the moon also sleeping?
There, in the pool?
Shiki,
Masaoka. (1867-1902).
- I want to sleep
Swat the flies
Softly, please.
- After killing
a spider, how lonely I feel
in the cold of night!
- For love and for hate
I swat a fly and offer it
to an ant.
- A mountain village
under the pilled-up snow
the sound of water.
- Night; and once again,
the while I wait for you, cold wind
turns into rain.
- The summer river:
although there is a bridge, my horse
goes through the water.
- A lightning flash:
between the forest trees
I have seen water.
Takahama, Kyoshi
- A dead chrysanthemum
and yet - isn't there still something
remaining in it?
- He says a word,
and I say a word - autumn
is deepening.
- The winds that blows -
ask them, which leaf on the tree
will be next to go.
- A gold bug -
I hurl into the darkness
and feel the depth of night.
Morten Paulsen (MOPA95AB@prelux.cbs.dk):
- An island song
Like a floating river
Rain Rain Fall Fall
Christmas
Ron Loeffler
- Glass balls and glowing lights.
Dead tree in living room.
Killed to honor birth.
Computers.
Andeyev, Alexey V. (alexey@cerc.wvu.edu):
- Spring backup in CS lab:
time to fall in love with
certain humanware.
Ed \"Darts Vapor\" Button
- alone, on the web,
drops of sensitivity
embrace an eyelash
Chris Spruck
- Faceless, just numbered.
Lone pixel in the bitmap-
I, anonymous.
Flowers.
Dave McCroskey. (mccroskeyd@hal.hahnemann.edu):
- on the Chinese vase
flowers retain brightness
- - pouring out water.
Food
Paulsen, Morten:
- Sushi and Soya
The Spring comes
When the day is over
Thomas Grieg
- Pond with ice
tadpoles
summer
- Looking at the clouds
blue in the ice-wind
space flows
- Quiet around the point: ducks;
up down birches
helicopter
Vince
- Darkended dreams
become modern grapes of wrath
reaping a bitter wine.
Summer.
Dhugal Lindsay. (dhugal@ori.u-tokyo.ac.jp):
- they've gone...
where the beach umbrella was
the sand not quite so hot
Paul Mena:
- through the fingerprints
on my window-
cloudless blue sky.
John. (JThomp7102@aol.com):
Deserted steel-mill.
Along the Ohio River,
Chromatic butterfly.
James Dolan. (james.dolan@mindspring.com):
Dallas summer song:
cicadas whir, the
sirens call
Time
Phil Wahl
- The flap of a bat,
drip drip of monsoon waters.
Ancient image stares.
Noel Kaufmann
- Behold the ego
Set in glowing emptiness
On the edge of time
Urban Haiku
Michael R. Collings mcolling@pepperdine.edu):
- Silence--a strangled
Telephone has forgotten
That it should ring
- Freeway overpass--
Blossoms in grafitti on
fog-wrapped June mornings
World.
Dave McCroskey. (mccroskeyd@hal.hahnemann.edu):
- the morning paper
harbinger of good and ill
- - I step over it
Renku - online reference to the Japanese style of linked poem also known as Haikai no renga.
Haikai no renga, usually now called renku by the Japanese, is a style of linked poem that reached its height in the work of Bashô (surname Matsuo, 1644-1694) and his disciples. The tradition began almost a thousand years ago (some would say longer ago than that), and is very much alive today in Japanese, English, and other languages
RENKU
HAIKU FOR PEOPLE
See Eisenstein
Akutagawa, Ryunosuke. (1892-1927). Akutagawa wrote "Rashomon", "The Nose", "The Handkerchief", "Hell Screen ", "Flatcar" and "Kappa". He didn't start writing Haiku before 1919, under the pseudonym Gaki.
Green frog,
Is your body also
freshly painted?
Sick and feverish
Glimpse of cherry blossoms
Still shivering.
Anonymous.
Without flowing wine
How to enjoy lovely
Cherry blossoms?
