|
|
 |
Saigyo Deep in the mountains, sipping clear water from a mountain stream, gathering horse chestnuts fallen here and there. |
|
|
Ryokan All my life I have been too indolent, leaving everything to the truth of heaven. In my sack are three measures of rice, Next to the stove a cord of wood. Why inquire who is enlightened and who is not? What do I know about status and gain, that dust. Rainy nights here in my thatched hut I stick out my two legs any which way I please. |
|
|
Joso |
|
|
Basho The sea darkening the voices of the wild geese crying, whirling, white. A flash of lightning into the darkness travels a night heron's cry. Now in sad autumn I take my darkening path, a solitary bird. |
|
Buson Not quite darkness yet and the stars shining above the withered moorland. Utter aloneness - fine! - still another pleasure of autumn twilight. A bright autumn moon - in the shade of each grass blade a cricket chirping. |
|
|
Issa Orioles singing, the river flows in silence noon, sun over head. The autumnal moon in a sea a small boat drifts, drifts on with the tide. Vanity of men: they would like to possess this passing winter moon. |
|
|
other haiku Kyokusui Descending seaward far-off mountain waterfall; winter nights so still. Chora A storm wind blows up out from among the grasses rises a full moon. Shiki The wild geese cry out: the waves are white in the night on the reefs below. Boncho See the heavy leaf on the silent windless day falls of its own will. Sokan If they were silent flights of herons on dark sky - snowflakes of autumn. Taigi Crossing it alone in cold moon light, the old bridge echoes my footsteps. Sogi Life in the world is as brief as time spent sheltered from winter showers. Rippo Three loveliest things - moonlight, cherry-bloom, and now I seek silent snow. | |
¶