17 Teijiro Shinoda
(1899-1986)
Haiku by Japanese  Poets 9
                             translated by Fay Aoyagi
18 Takajo Mitsuhashi
(1899-1972)
from Gendai no Haiku (Modern Haiku), edited by Shobin Hirai, Kodansha,
Tokyo, 1996
sabishikutenaraneba kiku o kaini desu'

 I cannot bear
 this loneliness
 I go out to buy chrysanthemums


   
    
                             
itsu hateshi natsuzomo hitori hiza dakeba

     I wonder
    when the summer ends
    hugging my knees
    
yoite ko ga hajimete modoru yo no nowake


  for the first time
  my child comes home drunk
  typhoon night



   
                        
umi e otsu tsubaki konotoki sakebitsutsu

   the moment
  of falling on to the sea
  a camellia cries
                      
me o irenu sutedaruma ari ta no koori


  a dharma discarded
 without its eyes
 ice on the rice field

In January in Japan, many dharma figures sold at the shrines.   
People put one eye on the figure and at the end of the year,
when their wish is realized, they put the other eye on the figure.
fuji usete ato tada kiri no tougarashi

    Mt. Fuji disappears
   and just the red pepper field
   in the fog
ochiba ikou fujidana wa hoshi sumu tokoro


  after the leaves fell
 the wisteria trellis is where
 the stars live
meyanagi ni shouto yawaragisomen to su

     budding willow
    the capital burnt to ashes
    begins to soften

* from haiku collection "Haru no Tobi" (Spring Kite)
published in 1952.
     
runoaru no onna ni keito amasetashi

    I want to have a woman
   painted by Renoir
   knit
   
  
botan hyaku nihyaku sanbyaku mon hitotsu

  peonies in one hundred...
 two hundred ... three hundred...
 only one gate

 
futokorode toku nakare mishima no shi

   do not analyze
  Mishima's death
  with your hands in your pockets


"futokorode" (one's hands in one's pocket, or in kimono's
sleeves) is a winter kigo