Eric Hoffman


Translations of some very early haiku by Ozaki Hōsai

(Tottori, c. 1899-1902)


きれ凧の糸かかりけり梅の枝
kire-dako no ito kakari keri ume no eda

Stray kite 
entwined 
in plum branches


水打つて静かな家や夏やなぎ
mizu utte shizuka na ie ya natsu-yanagi

House silent 
after rain—
summer willow


病いへずうつうつとして春くるる
yamai iezu utsu-utsu to shite haru kururu

Spring ends—
still unwell,
filled with discontent


峠路や時雨晴れたり馬の声
toge-ji ya shigure hare tari uma no koe

Mountain road,
winter rainclouds disperse—
a horse neighs


酒のまぬ身は葛水のつめたさよ
sake nomanu mi wa kassui no tsumetasa 

Stone sober—
my body cold
as want

Ozaki Hōsai was the haigo (haikai pen name) of Ozaki Hideo (1885 - 1926), a Japanese poet of the late Meiji and Taishō periods of Japan and a practitioner of the modern free verse haiku movement.

Eric Hoffman is the author of several collections of poetry, most recently This Thin Mean: New Selected Poems (Spuyten Duyvil, 2020) and the editor of the newly published Conversations with John Berryman (University Press of Mississippi, 2021).

 
 

previous page     contents     next page