how was
your EKG?
asks
the sparrow
心電図は どうだったかと きいてる すずめ
clouds
pantomime
scarabs
sleeping
こがねむしが 眠っている 雲たちは パントマイム
the sun goes down among the people harvesting wheat
麦秋の人々の中に日落つる
the loneliness of napa cabbage
watching the sun pass out of sight
白菜の孤独 太陽を見送つている
quickly turn
the season’s gears!
plant some sweet peas
for me!
季節の歯車を 早くまわせ スイートピーを まいてくれ
crane in a muddy field
where a narrow shaft of sunlight touches
鶴の沼田うすい日の矢がとどいてゐる
the spangle butterfly left
like a certain woman
黒揚羽が去つた 或る女のように
the ginkgo
hasn’t started shedding leaves
night school
銀杏のちりもはじめず夜学校
I played here when I was young.
Standing under the ginkgo tree
with my mother’s ashes
幼ない日あそんだ 銀杏の下に立つ 母の遺骨と
my mother’s ashes wrapped in brocade
the ginkgo tree is still withered
錦でつつまれた母の遺骨 銀杏はまだ枯れている
one
white
butterfly
eating “time”
まっしろき 蝶 ひとついて 「時」をはむ
birds perched
on the antenna
fresh persimmon leaves
アンテナにとまる鳥あり柿若葉
coming alone again
to stand before
the frozen crane
また一人来て凍鶴の前に立つ
only in the traveler’s eyes
Hiroshige’s pines
旅人の眼にだけ 広重の松がある
the sound of winter trees shifting
no one is listening
冬木の木ずれの音 誰もきいていない
Milky Way
this autumn visitor,
who could it be?
天の川この秋の客誰々ぞ
Zenjido Yoshioka (1889-1961), a “poet of the land,” was born in Fukuoka, and he started writing and submitting traditional haiku as a student. He became a member of Hototogisu, the influential traditional haiku group/magazine, in 1929 but was expelled in 1936 along with others for being associated with the “free and radical haiku” movement at the time. Ama no Gawa, the group he started in 1918, would become a major proponent of freeform haiku after the war until his death in 1961. In Ama no Gawa, he nurtured many young talents and became a central figure in the Kyushu haiku scene. He served as president of the Colloquial Haiku Association. His haiku collections include Milky Way (銀漢) and Newly Reclaimed Land (新墾).
There are two monuments to Yoshioka’s haiku, one at Imaizumi Park in Fukuoka, and one at his family temple.
Sources:
https://gyokodo.com/?page_id=245
https://www.xn--evqz9gt1mmyvjro.net/yosioka-zenjidou/
Entry No. 1 