Favourite Haiku

You have all read the Cat's thread

Haiku:
only three lines
just 17 syllables
and no second language.


Karai Senryu (18th century)

Now the man has a child
He knows all the names
Of the local dogs

In the beautiful women,
Somewhere or other
His wife finds flaws

A horse farts
Four or five suffer
On the ferry-boat

Watanabe Suiha (1882-1946)

Waves on the ebb,
Sound fading away:
Autumn evening.

The noisy cricket
Soaks up the moonbeams
On the wet Lawn.

Harry Sekitei (186-1951)

Stepping on a tendril,
A whole hill of dew
Begins to move.

Warm and snug,
Ageing in his sleep,
The paddy snail.

Anonymous (21st century)

Festival of jazz
Kindle in the cafe
Champagne on the Boulevard.

I like the Karai Senryus, bas.

I am trying to remember a Basho from my parents' volume of translations. It ended, I think, "an echo follows." Something about a well? I loved it.

Dreck on the skittle
Larry will arrive later
Fire, though, is snuffed out

Perhaps this voiceless
Wanderer dreams
Of flowers....
Butterfly dozer

Reikan

Right on Rick. I thought you might be tempted

A few more from Karai Senryu for Peter

Zen Priest,
Meditation finished,
Looking for fleas.

After he's scolded
His wife too much
He cooks the rice.

In the whole village
The husband alone
Does not know of it

As he enters the house
A whiff of murder-
The quack-doctor.

oh bas what a great idea. I love that Suiha, more please!

the 17 syllables arranged in lines of 5-7-5 applies of course to haiku in the japanese. Most of the translations I have been reading have four lines like Peter's in >5.

More Basho:
from The Records of a weather exposed skeleton:

Over the darkened sea
only the voice of a flying duck
is visible
in soft white

with a hat on my head
and straw sandals on my feet
I met on the road
the end of the year

wild sparrows
in a patch of yellow rape
pretending to admire
the flowers

the haiku is a faint gash inscribed upon time
Barthes
Empire of Signs

time eroded to smooth
cuttlefish skip the parade
life springs autumnal

Al Suzyu

Otomo Tabito (665-731)
in praise of sake

In calling it "sage"
That splendid sage
Of long ago - how right he was

What the seven sages, too,
Long ago craved and craved
was sake above all

Sooner than be a man,
I'd be a sake jar
Soaking in sake

Even a priceless jewel
How can it excel
A rough cup of sake

Calm and knowing ways -
These are not for me
Instead I'd rather weep
Sake-sodden tears

Laughing at Myself

by 'Gaki'

One spot alone
Left glowing in the dark
My snotty nose

Akutagawa's haiku name was Gaki. On July 23, 1927, he wrote the haiku above, gave the poem to his aunt and asked her to deliver it the next morning to the family doctor, who was also a haiku poet. Then Akutagawa killed himself by drinking poison.

>3

Slick, I skimmed my entire copy of The Narrow Road to the Deep North, but couldn't find it there.

This one, however, piqued my interest:

A male cat
Passed through the hole
In the broken hearth
To meet his mistress

I didn't know cats had mistresses! Can a dog get a mistress?

Konishi Raizan (1654-1716)

Girls planting Paddy:
Only their song
Free of the mud

Spring Breeze -
How white the heron
Among the pines!

Ishida Hakyo (born 1913)

Sparrows scurrying
As if storm-mounted
Scudding over fields

Sick-room window
Lacquered over
With grey winter cloud

Dead fly husk
Lies by my sleeve
As if in waiting.

More! More!

Jack Kerouac

Empty baseball field
a robin
hops along the bench

After the shower
among the drenched roses
the bird thrashing in the bath.

Following each other
my cats stop
when it thunders.

The bottoms of my shoes
are clean
from walking in the rain

flattering droplets
intent upon their vacuum
confused ambient

Al Suzyu

Haikus have always been difficult for (while I have friends who like to write them about chips in the Mexican restaurant), so this one has always been my favorite:

haikus are easy
but sometimes they don't make sense
refrigerator

Rick, I like confused ambient.

bibliolee8 - yes you have got the hang of it.

Uejima Onitsura (1661-1738)

It's summer; then
'Oh, let's have winter
Some men say

To know the plums,
own your heart
And own your nose.

Come, come, I say
But the firefly
Goes on its way.

Trout leaping
On the river-bed
Clouds floating

Bobby Shaftoe

Two tires fly. Two wail.
A bamboo grove, all chopped down.
From it, warring songs.

Antenna searches
Retriever's nose in the wind
Ether's far secrets.

The leaves of Shanghai:
Pale doorways in a steel sky.
Winter has begun.

Breaking the silence
Of an old pond
a frog jumped into water
a deep resonance.

This poem was written by our master on a spring day. He was sitting in his riverside house in Edo, bending his ears to the cooing of the a pigeon in the quiet rain. There was a mild wind in the air, and one or two petals of cherry blossom were falling gently to the ground. It was the kind of day you often have in late March - so perfect you want it to last forever. Now and then in the garden was heard the sound of frogs jumping into the water. Our master was deeply immersed in meditation, but finally he came out with the second half of the poem:

A frog jumped into water
a deep resonance.

One of the disciples sitting with him immediately suggested for the first half of the poem:

Amidst the flowers
Of the yellow rose.

Our master thought for a while but finally decided on

Breaking the silence
of an ancient pond.

The disciple's suggestion is admittedly picturesque and beautiful, but our master's choice, being simple, contains more truth in it. It is only he who has dug deep into the mystery of the universes that can choose a phrase like this.

from Kuzu no Matsubara, a collection of critical essays by Shiko (student of Basho), early 18th C.

Night dreams of avid arms
O Chinnaswamy
talonted budgie

This one's been on my profile page for a while now:

The swallow
Turns a somersault;
What has it forgotten?

Otsuyu

Oh, I love that one.

rice well fermented
side slog fore of a dazed dog
wooden slatted walls

Alsuzyu

Bitten by fleas and lice,
I slept in a bed,
A horse urinating all the time,
Close to my pillow.

- another Haiku-esque work of Basho's

Haiku by John Brandi

after the rain
bomb craters filled
with stars

autumn dusk
a bobbing branch
where the crow has flown

daybreak
coyote's Charlie Parker
impromptu

so cold
naming the stars
to keep warm

thinking of retirement
he realizes
he never had a job

wake in a new land
water music
from swaying bamboo

"It's the east wind blowing"
They say as they walk
Master and servant

The bridge broken
And men on the bank:
Summer moon

On the dust heap
Morning glory flowering:
Late Autumn

A chilling moon
As I walk alone:
Clatter of the bridge.

Tan Taigi (1709-71) he campaigned to free haiku from vulgarity.

ducks meet dawn darkly
bubbles, submerged, rising--OH!
dawn's imperfect heave

Alsuzyu

In the utter silence
Of a temple
A cicada's voice alone
Penetrates the rocks

- Basho again

old neighbourhood:
welcomed back by
my graffiti


fire drill:
as soon as she gets outside
she lights up

morning tai chi
& the first kangaroo
motionless too


at the news-stand
today’s truths stacked up
taller than me

at dusk
moths gather
to the painting

the song of bees
turning weeds
to honey

Ross Clark

The moth-wing silence
drains the minds of thoughts aloft
while stones grovel still

Alsuzyu

list of lists alist
air shuddering gracefully
who done, who done gone?

bees dropping like flies
stingers madly testing air
Taro eats honey

Alsuzyu

Dear Group, with a special note to #3 slick... and #12 Sandydog1.

The version of the Basho Haiku I am using is:
http://www.librarything.com/work/5655355/book/49483906

By the translator Jane Reichhold

#3. Just going by the sounds, this is the best I could come up with (number 539 in the book)

the water's source
in an ice cavern if I ask
the willow

I suggest this because of the sounds and because when I looked for #12's "A male cat/passed through the hole/..."

I found (number 72)

a cat's wife
visited so frequently
the oven crumbles

Which, though it looks quite different, is, (going by the notes at the back of the book) the same story.

I guess translation (especially of a pared down "poem") is
difficult and has many interpretations.

Thanks for encouraging me to "skim" through BASHO.

Guido.

rice paddies in winter
the dragonfly slides alone
where is evil now?

Alsuzyu

Night growing late:
Sound of charcoal
Broken on charcoal.

Oh, this hectic world -
Three whole days unseen
The cherry blossom!

Bad-tempered, I got back:
Then, in the garden
The willow-tree.

I look at the light:
Yes, there is a wind,
This night of snow.

OSHIMA RYOTA (1718-87)

The wind gathers snow
jealous lover of the light
gentle is the fool

Alsuzyu

Alsuzyu, from From a Ditch along the Tokkaido

What you call a breast
I call the highest mountain
A cave is a cave

Akiko, my friend,
does not have a snake down there
Why hate Akiko?

Born naked: the beach
Gentle ocean breeze stiffens
She has three nipples?

When you said broken
I laughed, but then you farted
Am i your mason?

Intestinal words
vocal chords filter the best
Others need no lips

A gift of rice:
the glorious Tokkaido
Finally clean feet

Translating Haiku
Will this work in English? eh?
My sewer speaks ngrsh

Eyes slide wide of me
I am not a carbuncle
I also have two eyes

Wisdom of nature
Rogue wave: Cormorant--take that!
Look darling: seagulls

I say, crabs don't walk
So, Wise One, how then do crabs move?
I say, crabs don't walk

Oh Haiku--Wherr you?
Is a Haiku thread too long
by definition?

lol
Rick, can you give us some info on Alsuzyu?

How beautiful it is
the snow on the ground
and the cloud in the west
That brings more of it.

Issho

In the autumn wind
There will at least be
A lotus to sit on
For eternal peace.

Kasho, haiku written on the death of Issho

Alsuzyu, or Al, as i call him, is an eternal decadent who believed that though the decadence of urban Japan was centuries ahead of its time it remained in the lead because it, decadence, is a phenomenological constant. His years were heteronymic with Pessoa's.

Under the same spell (a hip-gnosis) but not the same results.

With passoa here
can hetaerism
be far behind?

With Porius here
can consonants not make love
at words' geneses?

By far the best translation:

A lonely pond in age-old stillness sleeps . . .
Apart, unstirred by sound or motion . . . till
Suddenly into it a lithe frog leaps.

but I have a better one, I believe,

oh angry pond with ancient water some from rain some from underground springs (get it, springs?)
still, my ass, keep an eye on that bastard frog
Fuck you!

Frog wonders: new pond?
Surface still as a mirror
Better not to jump

Alsuzyu

thanks rick. Al sounds very interesting,. and great great link from slick there!

Thanks #46,

Old Guido reads
contemplates amphibian
wet frog

Sorry about that chief :-)

Snow stopped sliding down
Crater cradles the full moon
Cold lava rising

Alsuzyu (from From a Ditch...)

You fell down here, too?
I don't plan to leave this ditch
Did she want sorrow?

Alsuzyu (from F...)

>52 finally an interlocutor!

yeah, but as i read
it I infer that she left
him quite abruptly

interlocutor
Martini sent you, dint he?
Well, give me a light

buc-buc!

Cloven prints in stone
Staccato farts stun fascists
Against the wall sir

Alsuzyu's having a rough day.

Moo, or Mu

Your Haiku is sublime, Sickie-Rickie.

That is a good one.

Haiku on the mountaintop
Haiku in the dell
Death becames the hookydook

Hookydooky doc
haiku fell into Gene's crock
death becomes fatal

TAKAI KITO

Winter copse
The moon piercing
To the very marrow

KATO GYODAI

Snow melting
Deep in the hill-mist
A crow cawing

I light the lamp
And even the back
Of the plum-flowers is seen

Autumn hills:
Here and there
Smoke is rising

Mournful wind:
Night after night
The moon wanes

TAKAKUWA RANKO

Rain of a winter storm:
Horns locked as they jostle,
Oxen in the meadow.

"Autumn evening--
it's no light thing,
being born a man"

- Kobayashi Issa

thirty one views left
In humility I bow
before the finite

Al Suzyu

Clouds framing out snow
Al Suzyu suspects a trick
My paint brush is gone

Al Suzyu

selections from Al Suyu's collection MAKE ME:

It must be random
automatic writing___________ word
haiku haiku hai

(the original doesn't have the underscores but I couldn't get word to stay away from writing)

Strictures cannot force
the words from Jiva’s inner
self, but I see that

tradition has three
Jiva has infinity
this IS easier

Jiva came to bed
She never says no to me
Yet I have no wife

belated reply to Porius (#44)

with Pissoa there
can the ass burns from heaters
be left behind us?

Shame, this thing is called
Shame. I often think about shame
What is this thing shame?

Al Suzyu

Don't ask a politician. Not ONE of em.

Al Suzyu WAS a politician, mayor for three terms of a small town on that southernmost Island.

No wonder he had such a hard time figuring out what shame was!

Different alike
replicas of the same things
mathematical

Al Suzyu

Tree seeds that wear hats
What if they all worked harder?
Hats stick without glue

Al Suzyu

I found dread crawling
behind slitherings of angst
I had lost the race

Al Suzyu (original translated by Al Suzyu himself)

race not quite begun
angst before slatherings
crawling I found dread

Baal Sez-hoo

Persian Baal Sezhu
wrote one terrible Haiku
that ended: AAAAAACHOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I never paid off
my student loans because an
asshole threatened me

80: lqarl
Thanks!

I can see futures
White men go on a rampage
I am a Buddhist

Al Suzyu

The world of dew is
A world of dew.....and you,
And yet.......

My home, where all I touch,
Or try, bears as bloom
A briar.

Thin little frog,
Don't give in
Issa is here, you know.

KOBAYASHI ISSA

I love that self-referential touch

why has hai...haiku
gone out of fashion when I
know your vase is cracked?

Al Suzyu

Al Suzyu rocks!

Lava in my hand
Could this be broken liquid?
What, then, is a rock?

Al Suzyu

Writing a poem
in seventeen syllables
is very diffic-

I've seen this in different versionsvand attributed to different people. Anyone know who the author is?

Wretched, rank, and sad
Can I ignore this woman?
She refutes herself

Al Suzyu

Australia...hmmm
marsupials...hmmm...for what?
bottle openers

Al Suzyu

Many years have passed
Some of them made up of days
You stay--I will go

Al Suzyu

To stay or to go
that's the question
for something completely different.

Yes you must leave now
take what you want though, baby,
blue skies fold like cranes

Al Suzyu

Don't follow leaders
watch the pay and display
Rita blowin in the wind

5-7-5 Bas, even in my translations of Al Suzyu

So, maybe

Follow leaders? No.
Watch Rita display her pay
Blowin in the wind

Teach English a must
behold beer or wine making
piss floating downstream.

Ripple in still water
Where there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIyfMiA3Xe0

Saxophone playing
the breath of reed in the wind
noise startles beetles.

Revenge of beetles
reed all about it, mister
allegro: vibrate!

Iko iko nay
jokomo feena ah nay
grandma's flags on fire.

piss on that fucker
fire burns when grandma is hot
iko iko yay

My Salon-boy seez your Salon-boy
Sittin' by the fie-oh
My Salon-boy say ta you Salon-boy
Gonna fix yo chicken wie-oh

aiko-aiko all day

now that is class

there was a young girl was named bright
whose speed was much pfaster than light
she departed one day
in the usual way
and came round the previous night
J.U.

Madness strikes again
New mirror in the bathroom
Reflections on life

Mishima--you Jap!
What is all this seppuku?
we have Asahi

A dry martini
Off with his head, samurai
Today I sleep in

(after al Suzyu)

Time to publish is what it is with these.

time to publish these?
hidden like a prisoner
no constipation

al Suzyu

Hah! Publication
is for the birds, like robins
millipede book mark

al Suzyu, from his collection Haiku for the Westerner

All for one: ego
All for two: folie a deux
The estate of Shinroku

al Suzyu, from Make Me

Fartification
I do not like blinding walls
Nothing is zero

al Suzyu, from Make Me

Fujimanjaro
I love lillies, Linnaeus
What weed has my crotch?

al Suzyu, from From a Ditch...

See the bullet train
How can water be called straight?
Heron in the sky

al Suzyu, from From a Ditch...

Good combination
white horses covered with snow
get it, papasan?

Do not be vulgar
Arrows shot from a new bow
Put your head back on!

al Suzyu

Flesh is human skin
nudity is beautiful
thank you for the bombs

al suzyu, from A collection of the Political Haiku of Al Suzyu

Life of a courtier
Sprezzatura for all time
Ends in deception

The Book of the Courtier

I loved a courtier
folds in all the right places
heartbeats were hidden

al suzyu

Absurd, Camus said
Irrational unfeeling universe
Revolt! Heart on sleeve.