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MITSUAKI KOJIMA |
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Haikuists are impatient with winter. J.D. Heskin is holed up in Minnesota and James Atkinson trudges along in British Columbia.
A barrel
of tea in one cup--
long winter
Hard rain
turns to snow
carrying winter on my back
It remains cold in Nagoya, writes Barbara Casterline, but Anna Akamatsu says the crocus have finally bloomed in Kawasaki.
Still too small
checking the white plum
as I pass
A long wait
for a bright sunbeam
crocus bloom
Murasaki Sagano says signs of spring have reached Kyoto. She invites haikuists to join her in composing haiku in English under cherry blossoms at Hirano shrine in Kyoto. Cherry trees were first planted there by the Kazan emperor in the 10th century. A haiku and hanami party is scheduled for April 8 from 1 p.m. Haikuists may reserve a spot by calling her at 075-463-2712.
Sign of spring
it palliates
secret pain
Angelee Deodhar recently translated the English version of "If Someone Asks...," a book published in 2001 that includes 116 of Masaoka Shiki's haiku, into Hindi. Azad Hind Stores in Chandigarh, India, printed the Hindi alongside the English version but cut the original Japanese and its romanization. Deodhar hopes that the English and Hindi translations will help Shiki's haiku become as popular in India as it is in Japan. The talented Indian poet said it took three years to do the translation work: "Ordinary, everyday language has been used rather than literary Hindi to make it easier for Shiki's haiku to be understood." As an example of her methodology, she explains that the word nurse could be translated to the rarely used Hindi word paricharika, but instead she used the Hindi sounds that imitate the English word nurse.
My nurse--
dozing
fly swatter in hand
Nobuko Masakawa hopes spring will zoom along from now on, but Teruko Omoto records Mother Nature's patient pace.
Accelerating
car window reflects
roadside dogwoods
Mother Earth
absorbing spring rain
silently
In Sakura, Chiba, Reiko Nishimura takes delight in singing to infants. She composed a haiku about the first strong gusts in March.
Retrospective
singing springtime songs
to baby
Strong spring winds
keeping clear of the babies
first check-up
Michael Corr may have been prowling around for haiku in darkened quarters of town while Kiyoshi Fukuzawa was scratching away at his desk in Tokyo.
Love's prisoner
Japanese inn lanes
flowering peach
Midnight diary
quick pen strokes break
pin-drop silence
Want to try composing haiku ?
Back numbers
The next issue of the Asahi Haikuist Network appears April 8. Readers are invited to mail haiku and meeting notices to David McMurray at the Asahi Haikuist Network, International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun 5-3-2 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-8011 or fax 03-5541-8539.
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ASAHI WEEKLY