The haiku and a tanka by Christina Chin
photos and an oil painting by Randall Vemer
1.
nostalgia
the soulful melody
of sad violin
郷愁や悲しく響くヴァイオリンそのメロディーの悲しげな節
2.
a luthier’s pride
the shine reflects
Arch’s smile
弦楽器製作者みな誇り持つ輝き反射アーチに笑顔
3.
A Moonlight Night
in the darkness
a breath of light
暗い夜の月の光の息吹きかな
4.
Summertime
lovegrasses
in her hair
夏時間彼女の髪にラブグラス
5.
bickering
on the red berries
twitters crowd
the town wires
swallow songs
赤い実で口喧嘩するツイッター街の電線燕の歌に
6.
a restful
night’s sleep
high speed train
安らかな夜の睡眠高速列車
7.
consecration
a moment of silence
the sanctus bells ring
奉献や瞬時静寂サンクトゥス
8.
countertenor
the angels
echo
カウンターテナーエンジェルたちのエコーかな
9.
on the dirt road
my chow in a box
harvest moon
土の道箱の食べ物名月に
10.
brine in jars
tonight’s menu
hot lips
瓶ごとに塩水入れるその理由今夜のメニュー唐辛子ゆえ
By the way, *hot lips is the name of a type of chillies.
Note: Short Japanese Poetry of 17 phonetic Units of 5, 7, 5 Pattern
Inspired by nine English haiku by Christina Chin, Hidenori Hiruta translated them literally into short Japanese poems first of all.
As a result, the interpretative Japanese poems of 5, 7, 5 pattern are added to the English haiku as above. Some of them might be haiku（俳句）, and others
senryū（川柳). In addition, two of them are written in the form of more than 17 phonetic units, such as 5, 7, 7 pattern and 8, 7, 5 pattern. This is because English is different from Japanese.
Surprisingly, three of the English haiku were interpreted into Japanese tanka（短歌）poems of 5,7,5,7,7 pattern.
Akita International Haiku Network 