17 Teijiro Shinoda
(1899-1986)
Haiku by Japanese  Poets 9
                           translated by Fay Aoyagi
18 Takajo Mitsuhashi
(1899-1972)
from Gendai no Haiku (Modern Haiku), edited by Shobin Hirai, Kodansha,
Tokyo, 1996
sabishikutenaraneba kiku o kaini desu'

I cannot bear
this loneliness
I go out to buy chrysanthemums




  
  
                           
itsu hateshi natsuzomo hitori hiza dakeba

   I wonder
  when the summer ends
  hugging my knees
  
yoite ko ga hajimete modoru yo no nowake


for the first time
my child comes home drunk
typhoon night



 
                      
umi e otsu tsubaki konotoki sakebitsutsu

 the moment
of falling on to the sea
a camellia cries
                    
me o irenu sutedaruma ari ta no koori


a dharma discarded
without its eyes
ice on the rice field

In January in Japan, many dharma figures sold at the shrines.   
People put one eye on the figure and at the end of the year,
when their wish is realized, they put the other eye on the figure.
fuji usete ato tada kiri no tougarashi

  Mt. Fuji disappears
 and just the red pepper field
 in the fog
ochiba ikou fujidana wa hoshi sumu tokoro


after the leaves fell
the wisteria trellis is where
the stars live
meyanagi ni shouto yawaragisomen to su

   budding willow
  the capital burnt to ashes
  begins to soften

* from haiku collection "Haru no Tobi" (Spring Kite)
published in 1952.
   
runoaru no onna ni keito amasetashi

  I want to have a woman
 painted by Renoir
 knit
 
botan hyaku nihyaku sanbyaku mon hitotsu

peonies in one hundred...
two hundred ... three hundred...
only one gate
futokorode toku nakare mishima no shi

 do not analyze
Mishima's death
with your hands in your pockets


"futokorode" (one's hands in one's pocket, or in kimono's
sleeves) is a winter kigo