Simply Haiku: A Quarterly Journal of Japanese Short Form Poetry
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Spring 2006, vol 4 no 1

RENKU

Kasen: Seeing Miscanthus

       

seeing miscanthus—
surely there is also bush clover
around here

buson    

beginning with the wind
on an evening in autumn

chora    

missed the boat—
nothing to do but find a place to stay for the night—
early eighth-month moon

kitō    

journeys follow this pattern:
something new with each step

ranzan    

Tsurayuki's daughter—
when she was just
a little girl—

chora    

the half-panel shutters are heavy
when rain is falling

buson    
* * * * * * * * *
     
night deepens
bowstrings are sounded
to lessen his lordship's distress
ranzan    
I, too, have known fifty
springs and autumns
kitō    

you too,
should wear a hood
old brazier

buson    

the beloved lotuses
are withered and gone

chora    
come, little birds!
—the uguisu's
charm
kitō    
when you bring out the wine cups, she runs away
country woman
ranzan    
although young
the Hitachi vassal
is appointed to a post
buson    
multi-layered cherry blossoms scatter
one petal at a time
kitō    
on a misty night
when a deer, pierced by an arrow
lays himself down
chora    
spring grows deep
in a moonlit mountain temple
buson    
the wine in the big jug
in an instant
turned to vinegar
kitō    
the five-foot sword
thoroughly tempered
chora    
* * * * * * * * *
     
the weather was fine
on the day Michinaka
moved to Tada
buson    
in the tips of the branches of young leaves
white clouds in the offing
kitō    
in the pines
the purple of wisteria
blooms late
chora    
chanting the holy name
at the point of death
buson    
imperial processions
came to our temple—
longing for the past
kitō    
waiting for the cranes that flew away,
but they do not return
chora    
without a coin to buy paper
writing poems
on the wall
buson    
the grace of a woman
going out with a lamp to light her way
kitō    
scattered
on black hair
night snow
chora    
having lost the lawsuit
she is chased out of the territory
buson    
even in fields burnt by drought
this year
the plants are ripening
kitō    
the month when festival trays
are laid out
chora    
* * * * * * * * *
     

a somewhat prosperous merchant,
overjoyed by autumn
walks at a fast pace

buson    
let's share an umbrella--
he teases an elderly lady
kitō    
in ancient times
just as now
love flourishes
chora    
what romance novel is this?
she hides it from view
buson    
thinking fondly on
Kisagata's cherry blossoms
in the darkening dusk
ranzan    

in the mist
Shiga's mountain
hototogisu

kitō    

Related items in this issue of Simply Haiku:
~ Collaboration in the "Back to Bashō" Movement: The Susuki Mitsu Sequence of Buson's Yahantei School (critical commentary)


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