Burning my diary; how come it leaves so little ash
焼き捨てゝ日記の灰のこれだけか
yakisutete nikki no hai no kore dake ka
(Santōka 山頭火)
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15
The year on its way out; as a memento we stay behind—my wife and I
行年やかたみに留守の妻と我
yuku toshi ya katami ni rusu no tsuma to ware
(Takahama Kyoshi 高浜虚子)
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14
Other than the woodcutter there’s nobody here; late-blooming cherries
木樵より他に人なし遅桜
kikori yori hoka ni hito nashi osozakura
(Ichihara Tayo 市原多代)
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1.
Osozakura are cherry trees that, for whatever reason, blossom later than the usual time. This also means that by then the flower-watching crowds are no longer around.
2.
Ichihara Tayo (1776–1865), also known as Tayojo (多代女), was a female poet who lived in the late Edo period. Widowed in 1806 at the age of 30, she became a haiku poet while raising three children.
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13
A sick man, venturing away from the heater to see the snow
病む人の巨燵離れて雪見かな
yamu hito no kotatsu hanarete yukimi kana
(Natsume Sōseki 夏目漱石)
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1.
A kotatsu is a blanket-covered table with a heater under it. To move away from the heater means, in this case, to pull one’s body from under the blanket and brave the coldness of the room—something that even a healthy person would be reluctant to do in a typical traditional house in Japan, with its minimal insulation.
2.
Yukimi, literally “snow viewing”, refers to looking at a snowy scene in the context of admiring its beauty. In haiku it functions as a season word associated with winter.
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12
Paper lanterns rushing to the scene of a fire; riverbank fog
提灯が火事にとぶ也河岸の霧
chōchin ga kaji ni tobu nari kashi no kiri
(Ozaki Hōsai 尾崎放哉)
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The word nari functions as a copula (similar to “is”), with everything preceding it being subordinated to an implicit noun such as “a situation”, “a matter”, etc. This construction is commonly used for giving an interpretation or explanation of observed facts, and a rough English equivalent would be: “what is happening here is that lanterns are rushing to the fire”. The explanatory tone is necessary in this case because the fog makes it impossible to directly see what is going on.
Nippoem 