Uploaded 4500th today!!
Thank you for visiting and sharing.
Fay Aoyagi
July 11, 2021
San Francisco, CA
Posted in Uncategorized
In January 2009, I started translating tanka from “Gendai Tanka no Kansho 101” (Apreciation of Modern Tanka 101), an anthology written and edited by Ken Kodaka. It took longer than I thought, but I am happy to announce that the mission was completed at last!
Since I do not write tanka and some poets use classic Japanese, I found tanka translation more difficult than haiku translation. From now on (at least for a while), this blog will concentrate on haiku.
I appreciate your support and encouragement in the past 3 years!
Fay Aoyagi
November 30, 2011, San Francisco
流木の折り重なりて旱川 谷村祐治
ryûboku no orikasanarite hideri-gawa
driftwoods piled up
the river
at drought
Yuji Tanimura
from Haiku Dai-Saijiki (Comprehensive Haiku Saijiki), Kadokawa Shoten, Tokyo, 2006
Fay’s Note: “hideri” (drought) is a summer kigo.
なほ北に行く汽車とまり夏の月 中村汀女
nao kita ni yuku kisha tomari natsu no tsuki
the train stops
before going further North
summer moon
Teijo Nakamura
from Haiku Dai-Saijiki (Comprehensive Haiku Saijiki), Kadokawa Shoten, Tokyo, 2006
Fay’s Note: Teijo Nakamura (1900-1988)
秋近し消しゴム急に痩せにけり 松浦敬親
aki chikashi keshigomu kyuu ni yasenikeri
autumn approaching
my eraser suddenly
becomes thin
Takachika Matsuura
from Haiku Dai-Saijiki (Comprehensive Haiku Saijiki), Kadokawa Shoten, Tokyo, 2006
夕潮の紺や紫紺や夏果てぬ 藤田湘子
yûjio no kon ya shikon ya natsu hatenu
evening tide
in deep blue and deep purple–
summer ends
Shoshi Fujita
from Haiku Dai-Saijiki (Comprehensive Haiku Saijiki), Kadokawa Shoten, Tokyo, 2006
Fay’s Note: Shoshi Fujita (1926-2005)
その声は風のさみしさ青葉木菟 笹下蟷螂子
sono koe wa kaze no samishisa aobazuku
its voice is
loneliness of the wind
the brown hawk owl
Toroshi Sasaka
from Haidan, (Haiku Stage) a monthly haiku magazine, January 2017 Issue, Honami Shoten, Tokyo
Fay’s Note: Literal translation of “aobazuku,” a summer kigo, is “green-leaf owl.”
