1. Some Japanese Poems
Like the pearl of dew
On the grass in my garden
In the evening shadows,
I shall be no more.
The bell has rung, the sign
For all to go to sleep.
Yet thinking of my love
How can I ever sleep?
The breakers of the Ise Sea
Roar like thunder on the shore.
As fierce as they, as proud as they,
Is he who pounds in my heart.
(Three Tanka by Lady Kasa mid eighth century)
On a bare branch
A rook roosts:
Autumn dusk.
Spring:
A hill without a name
Veiled in the morning mist.
Silent and still: then
Even sinking into the rocks,
The cicada’s screech.
You say one word
And lips are chilled
By autumn’s wind.
Mirrored in the Autumn lake,
Hira’s first frost.
To the sun’s path
The hollyhocks lean
In the May rains.
(Six Haiku by Basho 1644-1694)

2. Now the man has a child
He knows all the names
Of the local dogs.
In the beautiful woman,
Somewhere or other
His wife finds flaws.
In the whole village
The husband alone
Does not know of it.
“She may have only one eye
But it’s a pretty one”,
Says the go-between.
Judging from the pictures,
Hell looks the more
Interesting place.
Letting rip a fart –
It doesn’t make you laugh
When you live alone.
(Six Senryu by Karai Senryu 1718-1790)
In my garden
Side by side
Native plants, foreign plants,
Growing together.
The young go off
To the gardens of battle.
Old men alone
Guard our fields at home.
In the newspapers, all see
The doings of the world,
Which lead nowhere:
Better never written!
(Three Tanka by Emperor Meiji 1852-1912)