3 Santoka Taneda
    (1882-1940)
Haiku by Japanese  Poets 2
                                            translated by Fay Aoyagi
4 Fura Maeda
  (1884-1954)
massuguna michide samishii

   a straight road   and    I feel lonely
kyou wa kogarashi no hagaki ichimai

today    only one post card of winter wind
koori ga tokeru oto ga shite byounin to iru

the sound of ice melting      I am with the sick
sabishii karada kara tsume ga nobidasu

 from my lonely body  the nails starts to grow
tatami o aruku suzume no ashioto o shitteiru

 I know the sound of footsteps belonging to
a sparrow walking on the tatami mat
seki o shitemo hitori

  coughing    and     still       by myself
haru no yama no ushiro kara kemuri ga dedashita

 from a back of spring mountain   smoke starts
from Gendai no Haiku (Modern Haiku), edited by Shobin Hirai, Kodansha,
Tokyo, 1996
hito korosu ware kamo shirazu tobu hotaru

    I may kill
    someone--
    a firely
5 Housai Ozaki
  (1884-1912)
ushiro yori hatsuyuki fureri yoru no machi

 from behind
 first snow of the season--
 night town
yukiyama ni yuki no furioru yuube kana

this evening
snow falling
on the snow mountain
uragaeshi mata uragaeshi taiga haku

turned over
again it is turned over
I sweep a huge moth
botan kiru matsurigokoro wa takaburinu

 cutting a peony
 I cannot suppress
 this festival spirit

 
rai natte kaiko no nemuri wa hajimareri

 thunder--
 long sleep of silk worms
 starts
kanzan ni kodama no yukiki yaminikeri

winter mountain
echo and reecho
has stopped
sabishisa ya haruyama o kaki kumo o sou

 loneliness
 I paint the spring mountain
 then add the clouds to it
 
oozora e aozora e haari noborikeri

  to the huge sky
  to this blue sky
  winged ants are ascending