Today’s Haiku (November 28, 2011)

目をつむりセーター脱げば剥製です　　　渡部陽子
me o tsumuri seitaa nugeba hakusei desu
                            taking off a sweater
                           with eyes closed
                           I am a stuffed specimen
                                                                                            Yoko Watabe
from “Gendai Saijiki” (Modern Saijiki), edited by Tôta Kaneko, Momoko Kuroda and Ban’ya Natsuishi, Seisei Shuppan, Tokyo 1997
Fay’s Note: ‘Stuffed specimen’ for ‘hakusei’ may sound strange. My first choice was ‘a stuffed animal,’ but I do not want a reader to imagine a cutesy Teddy Bear. It is a stuffed animal (or a bird) made by a taxidermist.