12 Hisajo Sugita
(1890-1946)
Haiku by Japanese  Poets 6
                                   translated by Fay Aoyagi
13 Seison Yamaguchi
(1892-1988)
from Gendai no Haiku (Modern Haiku), edited by Shobin Hirai, Kodansha,
Tokyo, 1996
haru no yo no madoi no naka ni ite sabishi

  on this spring night
  in the middle of delusion
             my loneliness
maihime wa rira no hana yori koku niou

   smell of a dancer
  stronger than the scent
  of lilacs

(This haiku was written in Berlin.  It was unusual publishing a
haiku composed outside Japan around then.)
tabi tsugu ya nora tomo narazu kyoushizuma

mending socks--
this wife of the teacher
does not change into Nora
ako ni nite nakuwa taga ko zo yowa no aki

     a crying child resembles mine
    belongs to whom...
    autumn midnight

    
ware ni tsukiishi satan hanarenu manjushage

    the Devil who posessed me
   does not leave me--
   red spider lilies


  
kodamashite yamahototogisu hoshiimama

 in echoes ...
a song of the mountain cuckoo
as I wish to play

 
haritoosu onna no iji ya aiyukata

  keeping my pride
 as a woman--
 purple cotton kimono
nukazukeba ware mo zennyo ya busshoue

   when I kneel down to pray
  I become a virtuous woman--
  Buddha's Birthday
michinoku no sake ha minikushi a mo minichinoku


     salmon in the Deep North
    is ugly
    I, too, from the Deep North
shiraume o dotou to mireba higuretari


  I see white plums
  as the angry ocean waves--
  dusk
tourou no ono o shizukani shizukani furu

  a praying mantis
  waves its ax-like limb
  quietly ... quietly...
kazewakaba uragaeritewa iro o kesu

  flipping
 young leaf in the wind
 sheds its color
aki no hebi hito no gotokuni ware o miru

  the autumn snake
 as if it is human
 stares at me
higurashi ya naku kata  itsumo nishi to omou

  evening cicada--
 I think its sound always comes from
 the west