• Haiku of Critic and Poet Masaoka Shiki
• Haiku of Others

Haiku of Critic and Poet Masaoka Shiki

Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) was born in a Samurai family, and maintained a prominent position in the literary world despite tuberculosis. He often wrote about it.

In 1892 Shiki began to feel it was needed to free poetry from centuries-old rules prescribing topics and vocabulary. In an essa in the newspaper Nihon in 1900, he introduced the word shasei ("delineation from nature") to describe his stance: a poet should present things as they really are, and write in the language of contemporary speech.

His articles stimulated renewed interest in the haiku poet Buson.

Haiku by Shiki

While I turned my head
    that traveler
    I'd just passed . . .
Melted into mist

After killing
a spider, how lonely I feel
in the cold of night!

So enviable . . .
    maple-leaves
    most glorious
Contemplating death

A mountain village
under the pilled-up snow
water sounding.

The summer river:
although there is a bridge, my horse
goes through the water.

Hanging the lantern
    on that full white
    blooming bough . . .
Exquisite your care!

Green shadow-dances . . .
    see our young
    banana-tree
Pattering the screen

For a cool evening
    I hired the
    old temple porch . . .
Penny in the dish

Now my loneliness
    following
    the fireworks . . .
Look! A falling star!

Long the summer day . . .
    patterns on
    the ocean sand . . .
Our idle footprints

Fireworks ended
    and spectators
    gone away . . .
And how vast and dark!

By that fallen house
    the pear-tree stands
    full-blooming . . .
An ancient battle-site

Oh! I ate them all
    and oh! What a
    stomach-ache . . .
Green stolen apples

Autumn mosquitoes
    buzz me, bite me . . .
    see, I am
Long prepared for death

Such a little child
    to send to be
    a priestling
Icy poverty

Eleven brave knights
    canter through the
    whirling snow . . .
Not one bends his neck

I gave the greetings
    of the bright
    new year . . . As though
I held a plum-branch

At our last parting
    bending between
    boat and shore . . .
That weeping willow

Oh sorry tom-cat
    bigger blacker
    knights of love
Have knocked you out!

~ೞ⬯ೞ~

Haiku of Others

Winter rain deepens
    lichened letters
    on the grave . . .
And my old sadness

– Roka

Roaring winter storm
    rushing to its
    utter end . . .
Ever-sounding sea

– Gonsui

But when I halted
    on the windy street
    at twilight . . .
Snow struck against me

– Kito

Now in late autumn
    look, on my old
    rubbish-heap . . .
Blue morning-glory

– Taigi

None broke the silence . . .
    nor visitor
    nor host . . . Nor
White chrysanthemum

– Ryota

Flower in the stream
    thus too my lovely life
    must end, another
Flower . . .
To fall and float away

– Onitsura

Dirty bath-water
    where can I pour
    you? . . . Insects
Singing in the grass

– Onitsura

Night is bright with stars
    . . . Silly woman,
    whimpering:
Shall I light the lamp?

– Etsujin

You stupid scarecrow!
    under your very
    stick-feet
Birds are stealing beans!

– Yayu

In the farther field
    a scarecrow kept me
    company . . .
Walking as I walked

– Sanin

One fallen flower
    returning to the
    branch? . . . Oh no!
A white butterfly

– Moritake

Come come! Come out!
    from bogs old frogs
    command the dark
And look . . . The stars!

– Kikaku

Ah! Brave dragon-fly . . .
    taking for your perch
    this swatter
Consecrate to death

– Kohyo

Many solemn nights
    blond moon, we stand
    and marvel . . .
Sleeping our noons away

– Teitoku

Death-song:
Leaf alone, fluttering
    alas, leaf alone,
Fluttering . . .
Floating down the wind

– Anon.