Natalia,

Thanks for the information about Kikaku having written this haiku on
seeing a picture of Su Tung-p'o. It's this kind of information I wish
translators gave more of to us.

Here is Harold G. Henderson's translation (starting with
transliteration)from "An Intrduction to Haiku." Garden City, New
York, Doubleday Anchor Books, 1958, p. 61:

Waga | yuki | to | omoeba | karushi | kasa-no | ue
My | snow | thus | when-think | is-light | straw-hat's | top

"My snow!"--when I think that,
it weighs almost nothing
on my umbrella-hat!


A translation by Alex Kerr, from "Lost Japan." Melbourne,
Australia: Lonely Planet Publishers, 1996 (found in "The Classic
Tradition of Haiku: An Anthology," edited by Faubion Bowers, p. 27):

"It's my snow"
I think
And the weight on my hat lightens.


A translation by Hiroaki Sato, from "From the Country of Eight
Islands." Garden City, New York: Anchor Press / Doubleday, 1981, p.
314:

Think it's your snow, and it's light on your hat


Finally, Blyth's translation (Haiku, Vol. 4, pp. 250-51):

When I think it is my snow
On my hat,
It seems light.

Blyth then makes a tedious comparison to a Chekov story about a stray
dog. He sums up his comments with an unattributed quote from Milton:

The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heavan of hell, a hell of heaven.

He then gives a popular version of the haiku:

Waga mono to omoeba karushi kasa no yuki

When I think it is mine,
The snow on the umbrella
Is light.


Blyth then says:

"Shiki rightly says that it must be [written Japanese] 'When I think
it is my snow.'

"As a haiku, the poetry lies in the intimate feeling of ownership by
the poet of the snow which is on his own umbrella, but the verse
lends itself to generalization so easily that it cannot be called a
good one."

--Larry


--- In translatinghaiku@yahoogroups.com, "Greve Gabi"
<gokurakuatworldkigo@...> wrote:
>
> Dear Gabi,
>
> I looked through my library and found a book:
>
> *One Hundred Famous HAIKU*
> *Selected and translated into English by Daniel C. Buchanan*
> *Japan Publications, INC*
> *Tokyo and San Francisco 1973*
> ISBN 0-87040-222-6
>
> page 115
>
> Waga yuki to
> Omoeba, karoshi
> Kasa no ue.
> --Kikaku
>
>
> When I think of it
> As my snow, how light it is
> On my bamboo hat.
>
>
> Composed by the poet on seeing a picture of Su Ton P'o, a famous
> Chinese literary figure, wearing a large hat covered with snow.
> The general meaning -- what is our own never seems burdensome.
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Natalia Rudychev
>
> ....................................................
>
> Thanks a lot, Natalia,
>
> I added it here too. We are getting quite a row of versions with
this !
>
> http://haikutopics.blogspot.com/2006/04/kikaku-waga-yuki.html
>
>
>
> Gabi
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>