Search This Blog

Monday, December 31, 2012

New Year Haiku

I turn to the Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828) for New Year haiku on this New Year's Eve Day.

These I found at the site Haiku of Kobayashi Issa, where there are over 10,000 of Issa's haiku, complete with a handy search function so you choose your topic. I  searched for New Year and found 17 haiku, a few of which I present below.

I chose this one because it has been flitting snow all day here in Kobe.

1820
.御降りの祝儀に雪もちらり哉
o-sagari no shûgi ni yuki mo chirari kana
 
 
sprinkled in
with the new year's rain...
flitting snow
 
 
This one I chose simply because it captures my mood.
 
1822
.年立やもとの愚が又愚にかへる
toshi tatsu ya moto no gu ga mata gu ni kaeru
 
 
a new year--
the same nonsense
piled on nonsense
 
 
This is is about old age, which I have been thinking about a lot, and about eyesight, which is a constant obsession in our family. (Son #2 got his first pair of glasses yesterday, as it happens.)
 
1813
かすむやら目が霞やらことしから
kasumu yara me ga kasumu yara kotoshi kara
 
 
all is misty
even my eyes!
from this new year on
 
 
This one suggest that the barley fields will soon change color, turning green, ripening. I am currently working on a linked series of prose poems about color, so this appealed to me.
 
1819
けふからは正月分ぞ麦の色
kyô kara wa shôgatsu bun zo mugi no iro
 
 
after today
a new year begins!
the color of barley
 
 
And of course, children, their constant needs and gifts.
 
1822
.今夜から正月分ンぞ子ども衆
konya kara shôgatsubun zo kodomoshû
 
 
after this night
a new year dawns!
children
 
This one echoes the previous haiku about the barley changing color, doesn't it?
 
This website also has a random haiku generator. Click on that link and get a random haiku by Issa. Or search for what you want.
 
Either way, Happy New Year!

2 comments:

diane in iowa said...

happy new year, jessica.
may it be full of words that obey your least whim!

Jessica Goodfellow said...

Diane! How nice to hear from you! And may your year be full of clay that obeys your least whim!