Uploaded 4000th today!!
Thank you for visiting and sharing.
Fay Aoyagi
February 16, 2020
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
春の水まだ息止めておりにけり 曾根 毅
haru no mizu mada iki tomete orinikeri
spring water
it still holds
its breath
Tsuyoshi Sone
from “Kashû” (Blossom Study), haiku collection of Takeshi Sone Shinya-Soh sha, Tokyo 2015
夕されば春の雲みつ母の里 飯田龍太
yûsareba haru no kumo mitsu haha no sato
spring clouds fill
the evening sky
mother’s homeland
Ryuta Iida
from “Haiku Dai-Saijiki” (“Comprehensive Haiku Saijiki”), Kadokawa Shoten, Tokyo, 2006
Fay’s Note: Ryuta Iida (1920-2007)
いちまいの絹のごとしや春の暮 菅原鬨也
ichimai no kinu no gotoshi ya haru no kure
looking like
a sheet of satin—
spring dusk
Tokiya Sugawara
from “Haiku Dai-Saijiki” (“Comprehensive Haiku Saijiki”), Kadokawa Shoten, Tokyo, 2006
千人針貰ひしときの桜かな 生田比呂志
senninbari moraishi toki no sakura kana
when he received
‘one thousand stitches’ charm…
cherry blossoms
Hiroshi Ikuta
from “Haiku Shiki” (“Haiku Four Seasons,” a monthly haiku magazine), December 2017 Issue, Tokyo Shiki Shuppan, Tokyo
Fay’s Note: ‘senninbari’ (stitches by a thousand people) was a charm given to a soldier during WWII in Japan. A cotton belt with stitches each sewn by a different woman was considered to protect him.
鳥雲にもう打つ場所のないオセロ 田島健一
tori kumo ni mô utsu basho no nai osero
birds into clouds
no more place to cast
Othello stone
Kenichi Tajima
from “Tadanaranu Po” (Unusual ‘Po’), haiku collection of Kenichi Tajima, Furansu-do, Tokyo 2017
Fay’s Note: ‘tori kumo ni iru’ (‘birds go into clouds’ – meaning migrating birds return north) is a spring kigo.
桜の夜「今のひと泣いてたよ」とぽつり 宮崎斗士
sakura no yo ‘ima no hito naitetayo’ to potsuri
cherry blossom night
‘a person who just past us was crying’
she whispers
Toshi Miyazaki
from “Sonna Ao” (That Kind of Blue), haiku collection of Toshi Miyazaki, Rikka Shorin, Tokyo 2014
