Status Updates From Japanese Haiku (Japanese Ha...

First of 4 books of haiku translated in the 1950s. Here's a few favorites. Sorry for the all caps. It's how they're printed in the book...

I DREAMED OF BATTLES AND WAS SLAIN...
OH SAVAGE SAMURAI!
INSATIABLE FLEAS!
-KIKAKU

TOO CURIOUS FLOWER
WATCHING US PASS, MET DEATH...
OUR HUNGRY DONKEY
-BASHO

YOU STUPID SCARECROW!
UNDER YOUR VERY STICK-FEET
BIRDS ARE STEALING BEANS!
-YAYU

- the year end party.. I am even envious of scolded children
- on jolly New Year's Day my last year's bills drop in to pay their compliments
(From pg 60)

- ah! I intended never never to grow old... Listen: New Year's bell!
- "yes, come in!" I cried... But at the Windy snow-hung gate knocking still went on
(From pgs 58 and 59)

- considerate dogs stepping off into the snow as I walk the path
- such a little child to send to be a priestling icy poverty
(From pgs 56 and 57)

- old weary willows.. I thought how long the road would be when you went away
- no oil to read by... I'm off to bed but ah!.. my moonlit pillow
( From pg 55)

- from dark Windy Hills voices driving weary horses shouting of the storm
- oh former renter I know it all, down to the very cold you felt
(From pg 52)

- deepen, drop, and die many hued chrysanthemums.. one black Earth for all
- torches! Come and see the burglary I have captured.. oh! My eldest son! (That's rough buddy-)

- oh sorry tomcat bigger blacker knights of Love have knocked you out
- while I turned my head that traveler I'd just passed.. melted into mist
- shocking the red of lacquered fingernails against a white chrysanthemum
(From pgs 46 and 47)

- now in late Autumn look, on my old rubbish heap... Blue morning Glory
- oh! I ate them all and oh! What a stomach ache.. green stolen apples (lol!)
(From pgs 44 and 45)

- here, where 1,000 captains swore Grand conquest... Tall Grass their monument
- yellow Autumn Moon unimpressed the scarecrow stands simply looking bored
- white chrysanthemum.. before that perfect flower scissors hesitate
(From pg 43)

- dancing in my silks money tossed itself away... Pretty, this paper dress!
- white moth, flutter off: fly back into my breast now quickly, my own soul!
- nine times arising to see the moon.. whose solemn Pace marks only midnight yet
- watching, I wonder what poet could put down his quill... A pluperfect moon!
(From pgs 40 and 41)

- wee bitter cricket crying all this sunny day.. or is he laughing?
- a short summer night but in this solemn darkness one peony blooms
- long the summer day... patterns on the ocean sand our idle footprints
- see.. the heavy leaf on the silent windless Day falls of its own will
(From pgs 38 and 38)

- lady butterfly perfumes her wings by floating over the orchid
- night is bright with stars.. silly woman, whimpering: shall I light the lamp?
(From pgs 36 and 37)

- good evening breeze! Crooked and meandering your homeward journey
- not a voice or stir.. darkness lies on fields and streets sad colon the moon has set
(From pgs 34 and 35)

- vendor of bright fans carrying his pack of breeze suffocating heat!
- voices of two bells that speak from Twilight temples ah! Cool dialogue

- now my loneliness following the fireworks.. look! A falling star!
- stupid hot melons... Rolling like fat idiots out from leafy shade! (BRO WHAT!? 🤣🤣)

(From pg 31)

-ah! Brave dragonfly.. taking for your perch this swatter consecrate to death
- getting grasshopper take care.. do not leap and crush these pearls of dew drop
(From pg 28)

I loved all 8 poems on these two pages! (There are 4 poems a page)

My favorite one:
My shadowy path I've swept all day and now... Oh no! Camellia shower!

- such utter silence! Even the crickets singing.. muffled by Hot rocks
- far acrossed low mists intermittently the lake lifts a snow white sail
- swallow in the dusk... Spare my little buzzing friends among the flowers
(From pgs 24 and 25)

- you stupid scarecrow! Under your very sick feet birds are stealing beans!
- in the farther field a scarecrow kept me company.. walking as I walked
- pretty butterflies... Be careful of pine needle points in this Gusty wind!
- ah, unrequited love! Now elevate your chin and Keen tomcat, to the moon!
(From pgs 22 and 23)

- too curious flower watching us pass, met death.. our hungry donkey
- in what windy land wanders now my little dear dragonfly Hunter?
- a saddening world: flowers whose sweet blooms must fall.. as we too, alas...
(From pgs 20 and 21)