Thanks so much, Larry san,
for this great addition to Sojo haiku !

I love your cherry blossoms gone ... a feeling I often have when one
flower season is over and the next is already waiting there ..

GABI

>
> Gabi,
>
> I appreciate finding out about Go-Shichi-Go from you. It's listed in
> my "favorites," and I have it marked on my calendar. I think the next
> one is due Sept. 28.
>
> Although I am not generally fond of haiku which state the obvious,
> Sojo manages to make those kind interesting, in a way that I haven't
> quite figured out yet.
>
> In addition to the one you quote below, others of this kind are:
>
> beni-tsutsuji hana michite ha wa kakure keri
>
> red azaleas...
> as its flowers bloom fully
> the leaves get hidden
>
> tr. Susumu Takiguchi
>
> (The comment by Takiguchi, describing how spectacular the azalea
> blossoms look, "especially...when people are missing the recently
> fallen cherry blossoms," makes me think of a haiku I wrote:
>
> just in time
> to enjoy azaleas
> --cherry blossoms gone
>
> LOL)
>
> and:
>
> aki no michi hikage ni irite hi ni idete
>
> The autumn road
> enters the shade--and emerges
> into the sunshine.
>
> tr. Ueda
>
> Some alternate translations of a Sojo haiku:
>
> ugan ni wa miezaru tsuma wo sagan nite
>
> I can't see my wife
> With my right eye,
> But I can with my left.
>
> tr. Blyth
>
> my right eye
> cannot see my wife, I look at her
> with my left eye
>
> tr. Takiguchi
>
> My wife--blurred
> in my right eye,
> clear in my left.
>
> tr. Lucien Stryk
>
> Of the three translations above, I like the third one best, by the
> fine American poet Lucien Stryk, even though it takes the most
> liberty with literalness.
>
> I also like the use of metamorphosis in Sojo's haiku (remembering how
> I became a "cool blue hydrangea" in my garden during a heatwave--lol):
>
> hito sunete mono iwazu shiroki bara to naru
>
> She sulks,
> says nothing, and becomes
> a white rose.
>
> tr. Ueda
>
> and here's one for Hugh Bygott to assess the philosophical
> implications of:
>
> waga omoi tsukikage to nari sora ni mitsu
>
> My pondering
> turns into the moonlight
> filling the sky.
>
> tr. Ueda
>
> Finally, I refer to two haiku translated by Takiguchi:
>
> utsukushiki hito o mikakenu haru asaki
>
> early spring...
> I chanced to see
> a beauty
>
> haru-samu ya futatabi aenu hito no kao
>
> spring cold...
> the face of a woman I will
> never see again
>
> For both of these haiku, Takiguchi speculates about who the women
> might be, Sojo's wife, a lover, a stranger...
>
> Both of these haiku make me think of the great little story within
> the movie "Citizen Kane," told by the character Bernstein, Kane's
> business manager:
>
> "A fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd
> remember. You take me. One day, back in 1896, I was crossing over to
> Jersey on the ferry, and as we pulled out, there was another ferry
> pulling in, and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white
> dress she had on. She was carrying a white parasol. I only saw her
> for one second. She didn't see me at all, but I'll bet a month hasn't
> gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl."
>
> Of course, this is the 'Rosebud' theme of the movie encapsulated.
>
> --Larry
>
> --- In translatinghaiku@yahoogroups.com, "Greve Gabi"
>
> <gokurakuatworldkigo@...> wrote:
> >
> > haru no kumo/ nagamete oreba/ ugoki keri
> > spring clouds...
> > as I am watching them,
> > they've moved
> >
> >
> > Commented by Susumu Takiguchi
> >
> > It deals with
> > Sojo Hino (1901-1956)
> > who has been underrated and needs a reappraisal.
> >
> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/worldkigolibrary/message/155
> >
> > ....................................................
> >