World Haiku Series 2019 (78) Haiku by John McDonald

World Haiku Series 2019 (78)

Haiku by John McDonald

 

sleepless night –
the western wind
snoring in the chimney

 

眠れない夜-

西風が煙突の中でいびきをかいている

 

rain –
in silent streets
the crunching of snails

 

雨 –

静かな通りで

カタツムリの音を立てて進む音

 

my hospital companion –
his sad
moon face

 

私の病院の仲間 –

彼の悲しい丸顔

 

the old trawler man
his wrinkled brow
…the ebbing ocean

 

年老いたトロール漁をする人

彼のしわのよった額

… 潮の引く海

 

her headstone
overshadowing his –
sibling rivalry

 

彼女の墓石

彼の墓石を見劣りさせている–

きょうだいの競争

 

leaving the doctors
crow follows me –
does he know something?

 

医者を辞める

カラスが後をついてくる –

彼は何かを知っているのだろうか？

 

this morning such shining –
moon, venus,
and cat’s whiskers

 

今朝はこんなに輝いている –

月、金星、そして猫のひげ

 

alzheimer’s –
on a silent sea
her boat adrift

 

アルツハイマー病 –

静かな海の上を彼女のボートが漂流する

 

after the storm
raindrops dripping red
from the apples

 

嵐の後

雨滴が赤く滴たっている

りんごから

 

at that age now:
waking in the night
checking each other’s breathing

 

今その年齢で：

夜に目が覚める

お互いの呼吸をチェックしている

 

— Translated by Hidenori Hiruta

 

 

Bio:

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.

Notes:

In Scotland they have two languages one is Gaelic(which is a Celtic language) and the other – the one he writes in – is a Germanic language brought to the British isles from Saxony ( old German ) . It was the original english language and the original Scottish language ( in the lowlands of Scotland only – Gaelic was in the highlands ) . The language was then refined in England, to become present day english, but in scotland it remained for many years ( mainly 17th, 17th centuries and then was replaced by present day english.) but a few of them like to keep the old language alive hence my poetry ( and some of it indeed still spoken in some areas).

Here I’d like to show you one scots haiku in his native language as well as in English, and my free translation 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 bluebells

 

のこぎりやブルーベル きる新線路