12 Hisajo Sugita
(1890-1946)
Haiku by Japanese  Poets 6
                                     translated by Fay Aoyagi
13 Seison Yamaguchi
(1892-1988)
from Gendai no Haiku (Modern Haiku), edited by Shobin Hirai, Kodansha,
Tokyo, 1996
haru no yo no madoi no naka ni ite sabishi

    on this spring night
    in the middle of delusion
               my loneliness
maihime wa rira no hana yori koku niou

    smell of a dancer
    stronger than the scent
    of lilacs

(This haiku was written in Berlin.  It was unusual publishing a
haiku composed outside Japan around then.)
tabi tsugu ya nora tomo narazu kyoushizuma

  mending socks--
  this wife of the teacher
  does not change into Nora
ako ni nite nakuwa taga ko zo yowa no aki

      a crying child resembles mine
      belongs to whom...
      autumn midnight

      
ware ni tsukiishi satan hanarenu manjushage

      the Devil who posessed me
     does not leave me--
     red spider lilies


    
kodamashite yamahototogisu hoshiimama

   in echoes ...
  a song of the mountain cuckoo
  as I wish to play
  
   



  
haritoosu onna no iji ya aiyukata

    keeping my pride
   as a woman--
   purple cotton kimono


  
nukazukeba ware mo zennyo ya busshoue

     when I kneel down to pray
    I become a virtuous woman--
    Buddha's Birthday


  
michinoku no sake ha minikushi a mo minichinoku


       salmon in the Deep North
      is ugly
      I, too, from the Deep North
shiraume o dotou to mireba higuretari

  
    I see white plums
    as the angry ocean waves--
    dusk

  
tourou no ono o shizukani shizukani furu

    a praying mantis
    waves its ax-like limb
    quietly ... quietly...
kazewakaba uragaeritewa iro o kesu

   flipping
   young leaf in the wind
   sheds its color
 
aki no hebi hito no gotokuni ware o miru

    the autumn snake
   as if it is human
   stares at me
 
higurashi ya naku kata  itsumo nishi to omou

    evening cicada--
   I think its sound always comes from
   the west