NPM: Matsuo Bashō

Okay. Ads gone. They were annoying. Live, learn.

Now: haiku. All originally by Matsuo Bashō and translated by Harold G. Henderson unless otherwise noted.

Who cares. I'll be gone all weekend and might be back on Monday evening. Maybe there will be more poetry then. Maybe not. But for now:

* * * *


shizukasa ya
  iwa ni shimi-iru
    semi-no-koe

(stillness / rocks to pierce-in / locust voices)


So still:
  into rocks it pierces——
    the locust-shrill.

*

yama-ji kite
  naniyara yukashi
    sumire-gusa

(mountain-path coming / in-some-special-way be-attractive / violet plant)

Here on the mountain pass,
  Somehow they draw one's heart so——
    violets in the grass.

*

chō tori-no
  shiranu hana ari
    aki-no-sora

(butterfly bird's / not-known flower there-is / autumn-sky?)

To bird and butterfly
  unknown, a flower blooms:
    the autumn sky.

*

inazuma ya
  yami-no-kata-yuku
    goi-no koe

(lighting / darkness-direction-go / night-heron's voice)

A lightning gleam
  into darkness travels
    a night heron's scream

*

haru nare ya
  na-mo-naki yama-no
    asa-gasumi

(spring is-it (?) / name-even-not mountain's / morning mist)

Oh, these spring days!
  A nameless little mountain,
    wrapped in spring haze!

*

furu-ike ya
  kawazu tobi-komu
    mizu-no-oto

(old-pond / frog jump-in / water-sound)

The old pond
  A frog jumped in,
    Kerplunk!

-- (trans. Allen Ginsberg)

*

koe ni mina
  naki-shimaute ya
    semi-no-kara

(voice to all / cry itself out (?) / cicada-shell)

Did it yell
  till it became all voice?
    Cicada-shell!