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

the mosquito net
with a corner untied—
ah, the moon

I don't care what this poem is really about, something zen, I'm sure, or that there's some question of whether Chiyo-ni even wrote it, I just love how it sounds like the moon's snuck inside the netting.

change of kimono:
showing only her back
to the blossom's fragrance

cool breeze–
enclosed in my kimono sleeves
till falling asleep

the coolness–
of the bottom of her kimono
in the bamboo grove

keeping cool–
in the deep night
strangers on the bridge

touching
the fishing line–
the summer moon

butterfly–
you also get mad
some days

among a field
of horsetail weeds–
temple ruins

I like the way this is structured, that by putting the horsetails first it suggests they were there first and the ruins are just incidental. Happily I can confirm that this feeling is even stronger in the original:

tsukutsukushi
kokora ni tera no
ato mo ari

And my own quick and dirty literal translation:

horsetail plants
around here temple's
ruins also here

Libby remembered where I was, but not my highlights. :(

Hey, this came back to me early! The other borrower must have given up on it.