6 Fusei Tomiyasu
    (1885-1979)

Haiku by Japanese  Poets 2
                                           translated by Fay Aoyagi

7 Dakotsu Iida
  (1885-1962)

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

nanimokamo shitteirunari kamado neko

  it knows
  everything
  a cat in the stove ash

kamado neko (cat in the stove ash) is a winter kigo.

waga tsukue tsuma ga shimewori tsukushi muku

  my wife
  takes up my desk
  to peel horsetails

nanohana to iu heibon o aishikeri


commonness
of rape blossoms
I admire

kitsunebi o shinji otoko o shinjizaru


  she believes
  the spirit of fox god
  but does not trust men

utsukushiki shi o kantan ni oshieraru


  I learn
  beauty of dying
  from a tree cricket

hatsu nagisa fumite yowai o aishikeri


  walking on the beach
  for the first time of the year
  I love my old age

tamashii no tatoeba aki no hotaru kana

   his spirit
   I see it
   in the autumn firefly

this haiku was written upon a death of the writer, Ryunosuke
Akutagawa.

chi o tarite bogyuu no ayumu fuyuhi  kana

  a cow walks
  dripping her milk
  a winter day
 

nomichi yuku aki no ashioto shitagaeri

  a walk through the field
  footsteps of autumn
  follow me
  

shunsetsu ni ko no shi aitsugu asa no shoku

  morning candle
  a death of my another son
  on a day of spring snow
  
First and third sons of Dakotsu died in World War II.

chi ni chikaku sakite tsubaki no hana ochizu

  blooming near
  the ground
  a camellia does not fall

ushi ayumu tsuchi ni hibikite kofuurin

   cows walking--
   an old wind chime
   resonates with the earth


   

imo no tsuyu renzan kage o tadashuusu

    dew on potatoes
    the mountain ridge straightens
    its shadow


This is Dakotsu's most famous haiku.   

In this page, I failed to translate the power of his haiku into
English.   I do hope, at least, I stirred reader's interest to
explore in his wok.  I believe that Dakotsu Iida is one of the
greatest haiku poets in the twentieth century.