Haiku World of Sasa Vazic in Serbia

 

Saša Važić （ササ・ヴァジック）in Serbia is a freelance journalist, astrologer, translator, writer of prose and poetry, essays, book reviews.

 

 

 

 

Važić kindly contributed her haiku to International Haiku New Year’s Festival 2011 by Akita International Haiku Network.

 

on the greeting card　　　　　　　　　　　　      　賀状が 

in the postman’s hand　　　　　　　　　　　郵便配達人の手に 

a snowflake melts　　　　　　　　　　　　　　雪片が溶ける

 

 

Važić is an author of over 1000 articles on various topics which appeared in newspapers and journals, Co-Owner, Co-Publisher and Co-Editor of Simply Haiku, member of the editorial board of Haiku Novine (Niš, Serbia), International Editor for moonset (Oregon, USA), and member of the World Haiku Club and the Haiku Oz (Australia),

Važić’s haiku have been included in over ten national and international haiku anthologies and in a number of national and international haiku magazines. They have been translated into English, Japanese, Chinese, Macedonian, Slovenian, Croatian, German, Czech, Bulgarian, Russian, Polish, Dutch, Norwegian, French, Italian, Hungarian, Romanian and Greek.

Važić is the recipient of a number of awards and commendations in contests held in her country, in Japan (Water, Lake and Sea; Suruga Baika; Basho Festival; Ito en; Mainichi), Germany, Croatia, Bulgaria, Canada, the USA, France and Romania.

 

light breeze . . .　　　　　　　　　　　　　 　  軽いそよ風．．．

on this side of the window　　　　　　 窓のこちら側に

a stale silence　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 よどんだ沈黙　

 

(Ito en 2005, Japan, Judge’s award)　

（伊藤園お～いお茶新俳句大賞コンテスト２００５年、日本、審査員賞）

 

 

opening the door　　　　　　　　　　　　 　ドアを開ける

at night       into a New Year　　　　　　　真夜中が新年へ

a gust of snowflakes　　　　　　　　　 　　一陣の雪片が

 

(Basho Haiku Festival 2006, Japan, selected)

（芭蕉俳句大会２００６年、日本、入選）

 

 

first snowflakes　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 　初雪

on the windowpane –　　　　　　　　　　　窓枠に ―

darkness and my face 　　　　　　　　　　やみと私の顔　

 

(Still in the Stream 2006, Canada, HM)

（スティル・イン・ザ・ストリーム２００６年、カナダ、入選）

 

 

strawberry fields . . . 　　　　　　　　　 　　　イチゴ畑．．．　　

the rumble of a train breaks　　　　　　列車の音が壊す

memories　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　         思い出を　

 

(Basho Haiku Festival 2010, selected)

（芭蕉俳句大会２０１０年、入選）

 

 

guests gone –　　　　　　　　　　　　　  　お客さんが去る ―

silence meets me　　　　　　　　　　　    静まり返る　

in every room　　　　　　　　　　　　　　   各部屋が

 

(Yomiuri Shimbun, 2005, Japan)

（読売新聞社賞、２００５年、日本）

 

 

father’s coffin –　　　　　　　　　　　　  　父の棺 ―

a peony petal　　　　　　　　　　　　　  　牡丹の花びらが

falls　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　            　 　散る

 

(Modern Haiku, 2007)

（モダン・ハイク、２００７年）

 

 

cracked soil　　　　　　　　　　　　 　　　砕かれた土

a day laborer bent　　　　　　　　　日雇い人夫がかがみ込んだ　

over his shadow　　　　　　　　　　　　  自分の影に

 

(The Heron’s Nest, 2009)

（ヘロンのネスト、２００９年）

 

 

winter evening　　　　　　　　　　　　　  　冬の夕

a voice greeting a neighbor　　　　　隣に挨拶する声

sounds like my own　　　　　　　　　自分の声のように聞こえる　

 

(Simply Haiku, 2004)

（シンプリィ・ハイク、２００４年）

 

 

going out to check　　　　　  　　確かめるために外に出る

if my body exists –　　　　　　自分の身体が存在するかどうか ―

a cold winter blast　　　　　　       　　寒い冬の突風

 

(Mainichi Daily News, 2008)

（毎日新聞、２００８年）

 

Haibun

Beyond
 
meadows   meadows   meadows   and the sky, vast   light blue   no birds in sight   nothing above our heads   my brother and i search   for tiny, tiny flowers in the deep grass   he yellow   i white   he blue   i violet   he runs merrily   jumping over ditches   i try to catch up with him   falling   rising   squeezing white   violet flowers   tight in my hand   close   closer   closer and closer   rushing to make someone happy   to be closer   to make her happy   our young mother in the photo   her lips faintly curved in a smile   her sad eyes   between the pages of a book i will never read again

roofless house　　　　　　　　        　屋根のない家　　

wafting through the mist　　　　霧の中に漂っている

a woman’s song　　　　　　　             　 女の歌

 

(Simply Haiku, Summer 2010, Vol. 8, No. 1)

 

 

 Largely, through her translation efforts she has brought English language haiku poetry, articles and books to Balkan readers and vice versa, Važić is the editor (as well as translator and webmaster) of the bilingual Haiku Reality (http://haikureality.webs.com/indexeng.htm) she started in 2004.

 

 She is the author of an e-book of haiku poetry entitled muddy shoes candy heart, edited by Anita Virgil and published by Peaks Press, USA (avirgil2@verizon.net).

 

She has translated 25 books of haiku poetry by Serbian and some foreign authors (into English), as well as David G Lanoue’s novels Haiku Guy and Laughing Buddha into Serbian.

Apart from haiku, Važić also writes tanka, haibun and collaborative rengay. 

She also creates haiga, some of which have been published at the World Haiku Association’s website, Kuniharu Shimizu’s website See Haiga Here, Haiku Canada Review, as well as in the Contemporary Haibun published by the Red Moon Press, USA.

Her many longer poems and short stories as well as literary articles and book reviews have also been published in a number of journals, in her country and abroad.

vazicsasa@gmail.com

 

 

 

Haiku Reality/stvarnost (About the website)

 

The idea to create the HAIKU REALITY has been gradually maturing with my better and deeper acquaintance with the haiku world, the world of poetry and those who create it. Finding beauty and secret in it as well as inefficient efforts of those who whole-heartedly want to belong to it, it appears to me both useful and nice to emphasize the beauty and to point to the inefficient in one place through word of all those who want to and can convey it.

The HAIKU REALITY belongs to the whole world and everyone is welcome to come and build it, cherish it and enrich it – some with a haiku verse, some with a text, some with an image…

Hoping that the HAIKU REALITY will grow into a wonderful garden through which everybody would like to take a walk, relax, be inspired by colors and scents and find his or her own flower, all haiku authors are invited to come, see it, and give it their own gift.

All contributions which satisfy the criteria of instructiveness, originality and aesthetic appeal will find their place in the garden of the HAIKU REALITY.

You are welcome to send your contributions to vazicsasa@gmail.com stating the subject (Essays, Criticisms, Analyses…; Book Reviews; Haiku Gallery; Haiku), personal data and a photograph (with your contributions for Essays, Criticisms, Analyses…) and a scanned book front page (Book Reviews). Send up to six unpublished haiku. All other works can be either published or not. If already published, please state the place and date of first publication.

If your work already exists in English and Serbian (or Croatian) please send in both languages.

Comments and suggestions can be sent to the same address.

Your contributions are always welcome, and the HAIKU REALITY will be supplemented depending on the number of works received and their quality.

 

I sincerely hope that you will have a good time in Saša Važić’s Haiku World, staying and absorbed in the beauties and wonders of her poetry world.

The next posting ‘Haiku by Students at High School (角館高校) in Akita, Northern Japan (Part 1) ‘ appears on March 12. 

 I am sorry that this article was not posted in the website on March 12, for we had the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11. It will appear when a series of ‘Haiku about the Great East Japan Earthquake’ , which begins on April 30,  have finished.

― Hidenori  Hiruta