Haiku by Brian McSherry in Iwate, Japan (3)

 

On July 2４, 2010, Brian Birdsell(McSherry) sent me an e-mail, contributing  a collection of haiku about summer.  

Hidenori

Thanks for the email. I agree some thoughts of the cool spring weather is rather refreshing right now. I think Akita is getting the same weather as morioka – hot and humid! I plan to go back to the states for a vacation with my daughter next week. But hope to finish a collection of summer haiku before I go and will send them to you. Enjoy the hot summer days and thanks again!

Brian

 

According to his self-introduction,

Brian McSherry has lived in Chicago, San Francisco, Prague, Italy and currently lives in northern Japan. He has lived there for over 6 years and enjoys spending time with his daughter, hiking in the mountains of Tohoku, writing, and traveling. He has a background in linguistics and teaches English at a private high school in Iwate. 

Now it is early in September, but the hot and humid days have unusually lasted.

Nice summer haiku by Brian make you cool and refreshed, I believe.

 

a butterfly

then two –

how far

I’ve wandered

 

蝶一羽さまよう果てや今は二羽

 

 

watching the rivers

flood the rice paddies –

her ice cream melts

 

川の水稲田にあふるアイスとく

 

 

a slumped woman

with hands in the earth

makes dinner

 

落ち込みや夕飯作る女の手

 

coughing coughing –

a scattering of flowers

in the wind

 

咳続く風に花々まき散れり

 

Kitakami river –

cool water rushes past

a collapsed house

 

家崩れ北上川の水走る

 

along the road

falling azaleas smear

the asphalt

 

ツツジ花散りて舗道を塗りつける

 

staring at a tree

a woman in kimono –

Tenmagu Shrine

 

木を見つむ和服の婦人天満宮

 

藤原養蜂 (Fujihara Apiary)

the smoke

from the beekeeper

drips of sunlight

 

養蜂家の煙日光のしずく

 

 

the body welcomes

summer clothes –

letting the breeze in

 

そよ風や受けて夏服うれしけり

 

a clod of earth

under the travelers foot –

distant mountains

 

旅人の足下の土や遠き山

 

the raspberry pot

still without leaves –

still get watered

 

葉の出ないラズベリーの鉢水かかる

 

dusk –

the picked dandelions

close up in her hands

 

たそがれやタンポポ閉まる彼女の手

 

 

the castle wall fades

under wild vines –

fleeting heroes

 

英雄や城壁のツタに消え行けり

 

a path made

as my daughter chases

wild flowers

 

我が娘野花を追って道をなす

 

an engine hums

in the apple grove –

first smell of cut grass

 

りんご園エンジン放つ草の香や

 

 

the rainy season

wears away at the page –

erasing my tracks

 

梅雨入りやページすり減り跡消える

 

traveling east

a shrine on the bluff –

repeating waves

 

東方の崖の社に寄せる波

 

I fall asleep

under clouds of green

leaves

blowing overhead

 

眠り込む青葉の雲が吹き流る

 

 

in the bent grass –

a moth with a lost wing

loses balance

 

草曲がり蛾の羽無くしふらめけり

 

 

along the roadside

pausing near rice seedlings –

10 years pass

 

１０年や路傍に止まり早苗見る

 

Last of all, I present a photo of Kisakata （象潟）, Akita for the last haiku by Brian.

Matsuo Basho （松尾芭蕉）stayed here in 1689 , visiting the Nohin Island （能因島）and writing haiku about mimosa blossoms（ねぶの花）.

The next posting ‘Haiku by P K Padhy in India (3)’ appears on September 11.

― Hidenori Hiruta