Kasen
: Springtime in Edo
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Springtime
in Edo,
Not a day passes without
A temple bell sold.
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Kikaku |
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Effervescent
haze reaching
To the dark side of the moon.
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Eiko |
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From deepest
sleep
I waken to the sound
Of uncle's plough.
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Norman |
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A tender omelette
just cooked
Fills the kitchen with fragrance.
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Shizuka |
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On the open
sea,
A ship speeds, all her sails
Bellied with the wind.
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Akiko |
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Being a traveller
on the road,
I hung my white shirt to dry.
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Haku |
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* * * *
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This way and
that way
A single photon flips
Through quantum states.
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John |
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The party
raw and raucous,
Turns philosophical.
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Dick |
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Caring for
each other
Bare willows and
A barbarian king.
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Tito |
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Tenderly,
with a chicken bone
He dubs her winter queen.
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Kirsty |
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Love, for
my next trick
I will turn this salad bowl
Into a blackbird.
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Dick |
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The autumn
flower-field spins,
The entire world turning round.
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Shizuka |
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The moon at
her full
Bends a branch of a pine tree
By her own sheer weight.
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Sosui |
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Brightly eyed
and sleek of flank
Our pigs root in the beech mast.
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John |
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A great comedy
boom,
Just a comic squeaking
On all the networks.
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Haku |
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Even today,
Auschwitz
Frozen harder than ice.
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Akiko |
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On a granite
gravestone
The faintest scattering
Of cherry petals.
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Kirsty |
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Hallelujah,
Hallelujah
Christ the King is risen.
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John |
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* * * *
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Gleams of
ayu fish
Jumping at the waterfall,
Sharp as a dagger.
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Sosui |
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Drawing a
brush from its case,
Kikaku writes on the spot.
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Shizuka |
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In the blue
dusk
Rain clouds suddenly lifting,
Kilimanjaro.
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Eiko |
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She cheers
up by stitching
Corn tassels to her hat.
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Kirsty |
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The farmer's
trailer
Is stuffed with scarecrows,
One head has rolled.
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Tito |
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Breathless,
I watch a snake
Slither into its dark hole.
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Eiko |
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The moon out
of eclipse,
From the crowd on the hill
A loud ovation.
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Tito |
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Hungry for
those heights
He takes the slope step by step.
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Norman |
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My old mentor
dead
I pray for his soul's repose
Crouched on the floor.
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Haku |
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A name engraved
on a beach
One summer day long ago.
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Sosui |
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The heather-lined
road
To Scarborough fair,
The purple of her lips.
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John |
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Childish curls
of chimney smoke
From the drawing of a house.
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Kirsty |
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* * * *
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The metrical
beat
Of pounding rice into cakes,
Tan ton tan ton ton.
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Akiko |
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Interviewed
after a win
The champion wrestler blushes.
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Eiko |
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Slowly warming
The bank of the river
Where we take our rest.
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Dick |
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Since fifteen
he has enjoyed
Sake, cheerful as spring days.
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Haku |
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Paper lanterns
sway
Beneath the blossoms, linking
All ages and worlds.
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Akiko |
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A butterfly
hair grip
Clasped in my daughter's hand.
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John |
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A Kasen to
commemorate the 300th anniversary of Kikaku's death
Composed: 16 July 2005 to 17 February 2006
Arbitrators: Nobuyuki Yuasa, Eiko Yachimoto, John Carley, Kirsty Karkow
Participants:
Nobuyuki Yuasa (Sosui) - Japan - sabaki
Haku Asanuma (Haku) - Japan
Akiko Sakaguchi (Akiko) - Japan
Eiko Yachimoto (Eiko) - Japan
Shizuka Yamamoto (Shizuka) - Japan
John Carley (John) - Great Britain
Norman Darlington (Norman) - Ireland
Stephen Gill (Tito) - Japan
Kirsty Karkow (Kirsty) - USA
Dick Pettit (Dick) - Denmark
Relevant elsewhere
in Simply Haiku:
Springtime in Edo (Japanese version)
Contrast and Integration: A reflection
on the composition of Springtime in Edo, by John Carley
Audio
file of the poem's English text, read by your editor
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