3 Santoka Taneda
      (1882-1940)

Haiku by Japanese  Poets 2
                                             translated by Fay Aoyagi

4 Fura Maeda
    (1884-1954)

massuguna michide samishii

     a straight road   and    I feel lonely

kyou wa kogarashi no hagaki ichimai

today    only one post card of winter wind

koori ga tokeru oto ga shite byounin to iru

 the sound of ice melting      I am with the sick

sabishii karada kara tsume ga nobidasu

   from my lonely body  the nails starts to grow

tatami o aruku suzume no ashioto o shitteiru

  I know the sound of footsteps belonging to
  a sparrow walking on the tatami mat

seki o shitemo hitori

   coughing    and     still       by myself

haru no yama no ushiro kara kemuri ga dedashita

  from a back of spring mountain   smoke starts

from Gendai no Haiku (Modern Haiku), edited by Shobin Hirai, Kodansha,
Tokyo, 1996

hito korosu ware kamo shirazu tobu hotaru

      I may kill
      someone--
      a firely

5 Housai Ozaki
    (1884-1912)

ushiro yori hatsuyuki fureri yoru no machi

   from behind
   first snow of the season--
   night town

yukiyama ni yuki no furioru yuube kana

 this evening
 snow falling
 on the snow mountain
 

uragaeshi mata uragaeshi taiga haku

  turned over
  again it is turned over
  I sweep a huge moth

botan kiru matsurigokoro wa takaburinu

   cutting a peony
   I cannot suppress
   this festival spirit

   

rai natte kaiko no nemuri wa hajimareri

   thunder--
   long sleep of silk worms
   starts

kanzan ni kodama no yukiki yaminikeri

 winter mountain
echo and reecho
 has stopped

sabishisa ya haruyama o kaki kumo o sou

   loneliness
   I paint the spring mountain
   then add the clouds to it
   

oozora e aozora e haari noborikeri

    to the huge sky
    to this blue sky
    winged ants are ascending