Haiku

Further procrastinating the preparation of a presentation we have been asked to make at a gathering organized by a social venture fund two weeks from now in Tokyo, we took a three-hour bike ride to one of the village hot-springs we have not yet been to. We arrived back just in time to meet with a friend in our neighborhood who is in charge of the local haiku club. Earlier we had agreed to write some haiku and join the year-end party this week, but some other work related stuff popped up on the same day so we had to cancel. Not wanting to make it sound like we are just not interested, we spent much of yesterday and this morning working on poems that would prove our interest. We had much more fun writing them than we ever expected.

Here are mine. They come with translation for those who can not read Japanese, but I did not spend any time trying to make the translation fit the 5-7-5 sylabic/sound rule. Also a note, many "modern" haiku don't pay attention to or require seasonal key-words, but they are a must for traditional haiku, which is why these are all focused on early winter in Sakae Mura.

枝で熟れ十一月に落柿かな
eda de ure jyuuichigatsu ni rakushi ka na
Ripening on the branch, I wonder if the persimmon will fall in November.

小雪や吹雪いてつづく隙間かぜ
shousetsu ya fubuitetsuzuku sukimakaze
In the onset of winter, drafts rage.

初雪は残らぬと言いそばつぶれ
hatsuyuki wa nokoranu to ii soba tsubure
Even as they say the first snow doesn't stick, the buckwheat is squashed.

ごろっとんザザザップップ屋根雪崩
gorotton zazaza ppuppu yanenadare
gorotton, zazazappuppu (words to depict sounds), an avalanche from the roof.

玄関につもりゆくもの蜂谷柿
gennkann ni tsumoriyuku mono hachiya kaki
The thing that piles up in our entrance way, bitter persimmon.

吹き続き障子やぶれや隙間風
fukitsuzuki syouji yabure ya sukima kaze
The draughts from the holes and gaps between the shoji (paper doors) blow constantly

As you can see, the baby bird is growing quickly. All the other eggs were duds, which is a bit of a relief for us, as we were preparing ourselves mentally to drop the chicks that we could not find homes for into the pond.