Connie’s Reviews > The Poetry of Chiyo-ni: The Life and Art of Japan's Most Celebrated Woman Haiku Master > Status Update

at the crescent moon
the silence enters
the heart

三日月に
ひしひしと物の
静まりぬ

mikazuki ni
hishihishi to mono no
shizumarinu

When invited here for the first time

twilight
is left
in the maple leaves

ゆふぐれを
余所に預けて
もみぢ哉

yūgare o
todo ni azukete
momiji kana

stars' meeting
which one
speaks first?

星合や
どちらから物
言そめん

hoshiai ya
dochira kara mono
i-i somen

Note: The Japanese Tanabata festival celebrates the myth of the Milky Way's star-crossed lovers, Altair and Vega.

how terrifying
her rouged fingers
against the white chrysanthemum

白菊や
紅さいた手の
おそろしき

shiragiku ya
beni saita te no
osoroshiki

morning glory—
the well-bucket entangled
I ask for water

朝顔や
釣瓶とられて
もらひ水

asagao ya
tsurube torarete
morai mizu

An illustration of Chiyo-ni's haiga on fan-shaped paper inscribed with her haiku asagao wa / kumo no ito ni mo / saki ni keri (the morning glory— / has even bloomed / in the spiderweb). Matto City Museum.

[朝顔は蜘の糸にも咲にけり]

morning glory—
the truth is
the flower hates people

あさがほや
誠は花の
人きらひ

asagao ya
makoto wa hana no
hito kirai

the autumn wind
resounds in the mountain—
voice of the bell

秋風の
山をまはるや
鐘の声

akikaze no
yama o mawaru ya
kane no koe

sangai yuishin (the Three Realms are one mind):

a hundred gourds
from the heart
of one vine

百生や
つる一すじの
心より

hyakunari ya
tsuru hitosuji no
kokoro yori

unfinished dream—
a chrysanthemum blooms
in the tatami room

夢さめぬ
畳に菊の
咲しけふ

yume samenu
tatami ni kiku no
sakishi kyō

Note: There is a story that while Chiyo-ni slept, someone put a flower by her pillow and when she awoke from a dream and was startled to see the flower, she felt incomplete in her dreamlike world, but then her heart became calm.

traces of a dream—
a butterfly
through the flower field

蝶は夢の
名残わけ入
花野哉

chō wa yume no
nagori wake iru
hana-no kana

I also saw the moon
and so I say goodbye
to this world

月も見て
我はこの世を
かしく哉

tsuki mo mite
ware wa kono yo o
kashiku kana

Note: This is Chiyo-ni's last haiku, dictated to someone before her death. The "also" infers that she had experienced everything in life including the full autumn moon right before she died. The word ka-shiku was usually used by women in those days at the end of a letter to say goodbye; it shows her clear and calm state of mind.
　Koko, a poet friend, wrote a mourning haiku for Chiyo-ni. Here, the "moon and flowers" means a life dedicated to the arts:
　　月をめて 　花を見つくし　 七十三
　　tsuki o mete hana o mitsukushi nanajūsan
　　loving the moon / absorbing flowers in her eyes, / at seventy-three