1.
monsoon patch of sun—
a fuzzy,
cottony dish
comes
to the table
tsuyu-bare ya
momen-ji no sara wo
taku-jo ni
Against the background
of a clear day in the middle of the monsoon season, a “cotton-cloth
dish” is brought to the table by a disembodied agency. It has to do
with the effect on the sensibilities of the long rains.
2.
in spring nesting holes
the great tit has no choice:
only one size fits
haru no suana
yamu ni yamarenu
shijugara
3.
my unawake brain—
through emerald transparence,
a cicada emerges
samenu nori
midori ni suite
semi no uka
4.
can’t steal the colors from
a thousand paper cranes;
set them on fire!
Iro nusumeneba
senba no tsuru ni
hi wo hanachi
5.
Atomic Dome,
its yawning transparence,
morning in summer
genbaku-domu
garan to suite
natsu no asa
The break, or kire, in
this haiku is between the yawning transparence (garan to suite) and the season
words. The oxidized iron bones of the dome frame
a transparent emptiness.
6.
on that summer day,
lapped about in
my mama’s waters
natsu no ano hi
haha no yosui ni
tsutsumarete
7.
looking like I don’t belong
I go and say a prayer
at my hometown shrine
tanin no kao de
furusato no
miya-mode kana
Miya-mode is the
event of going to pay one’s respects at the shrine of
the deities that protect a place.
8.
crows are cawing
in the empty fishing town—
summer vacation
garan to gyoko
karasu ga naite
natsu-kyuka
9.
summer seashore—
an octopus writhing,
a barefooted child
natsu no hama
tako kunya kunya to
hadashi no ko
 Tateo Fukutomi is a member of the haiku contributions jury for the
Miyazaki Edition of the Mainichi Daily News. He is also a lecturer on haiku
at
the NHK Culture Center, a member of the Modern Haiku Association, and
the Japanese Agricultural Exchange Council.Tateo Fukutomi was born in
Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan in 1936.
He began to compose haiku
in 1963, studying under Tohta Kaneko.
He was a farm trainee
in California, USA, for one year (1965-1966). He studied American Culture
under Taro Yashima (illustrator of children's
books)
in Los Angeles at that time.
Currently he is a
lecturer on haiku at NHK Miyazaki Culture Center. He is a member of the Modern
Haiku Association.
Publications include collections
of original haiku: Straw Hat (1979), Kappa, River Sprite (1989), The
Sound of Waves (1997), Straw Hat: English edition
(2000), as well as the essays: Trial and Error in a Foreign Land (1974),
and Kappa's Notebook (1985).
David P. Dutcher
Translator, editor of dictionaries. Born in 1944 in New York, USA. Received
B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Hawaii. Studied for a doctoral
degree in classical Japanese literature at Harvard University. He is an editor
of several English-Japanese and Japanese-English dictionaries, including
The Kenkyusha Dictionary of English Collocations, and has done translations
from both classical and modern Japanese. His English version of the CD-ROM
GADGET was widely acclaimed in the U.S. He has lived some thirty years in
Japan since first arriving in 1966.
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