Scots haiku by JOHN McDONALD (Part 1)

 

On July 15, we received two comments for ‘Akita International Haiku Network’ from Scotland. Mr. John McDonald sent his comments to us for encouragement, saying ‘Good Luck!’. He was the first haiku poet to send us comments and presented us with his haiku books.

 

 

I’d like to take up one of his haiku books, whose title is ‘THE THROU-GAUN CHIEL’.

I post some of his haiku, showing my free translations of them in Japanese to you.

 

 

In this haiku book, Mr. John McDonald noted: Dedicated to my dear wife Ann, our children Laura, Kieran, and Euan; and all the haijin who have inspired me, and continue to do so.

According to the introduction of the author, Mr. John McDonald is a retired stone-mason living in Edinburgh Scotland. He came to haiku in the mid-nineties and fell in love with the genre. He writes in Scots – one of the two languages native to Scotland (the other being the celtic-rooted Gaelic). He has a web-page of Scots haiku http://zenspeug.blogspot.com which he tries to update daily, and from which most of the enclosed have been taken.

Here I’d like to show you some scots haiku in his native language as well as in English, and my free translations of them in Japanese. I hope that you’ll enjoy scots haiku.

 

rairin o saws –

new railrod

throuch the blawort

 

roaring of saws –

new railroad

through the blubells

 

のこぎりや鉄道の脇ブルーベル 

ogiri ya  tetsudou no waki  buru-beru

 

 

 punlers gane

weet ginges the sawins:

tree’s hert bled out

 

foresters gone

rain gingers the sawdust:

tree’s heart bled out

 

人去りて木霊傷む雨の屑 

Hito sari te  mokurei itamu  ame no kuzu

   

 

 voar tirl –

youthie leaves

pruive thair vices

 

spring breeze –

young leaves

try out their voices

 

春風や幼葉の声歌ひ初め 

Shunpuu ya  yohyoh no koe  utai zome

 

 

skreich o day –

licht muives athort

the boo o the aipple

 

dawn –

light moves across

the curve of the apple

 

(award winner 10^th annual Suruga Baika literary festival)

 

暁やりんごのカーブ光過ぐ 

 Akatsuki ya  ringo no ka-bu  hikari sugu

 

 

 brainch sheddaes

jeegsawin the plainstanes –

bairns lowp amang thaim

 

branch shadows

jigsawing the pavement –

children hop among them

 

枝の影舗道切り抜き子ども跳ぶ

Eda no kage  hodoh kirinuki  kodomo tobu

 

 

the cailleach

an the burn

…at thair ain slaw raik

 

the old lady

and the stream

…at their own slow pace

 

老婦人小川のように自適かな

Roh fujin  ogawa no yoh ni  jiteki kana

 

 

 furst gorblins –

voar juist gat

roarier

 

first fledglings –

spring just got

noisier

 

若鳥や春を賑わす時の音

Wakadori ya  haru wo nigiwasu  toki no oto

 

 

shakkin wi lauchter:

the nuns

…the daffins

 

shaking with laughter:

the nuns

…the daffodils

 

修道女笑ふ姿は水仙花

 Shudohjo  warau sugata wa  suisenka

 

 

mither an dochter

settin aff bulbs –

the derk yirth

 

mother and daughter

planting bulbs –

the dark earth

 

(winner kukai 5 : haiku Ireland)

 

母と娘球根植える暗き地に

Haha to musume  kyuukon ueru  kuraki chi ni

                          

－　Hidenori  Hiruta