World Haiku Series 2019 (186) Haiku by Vassilis Comporozos

World Haiku Series 2019 (186)

Haiku by Vassilis Comporozos

 

Gently stroking

the cherry blossom blown on

her Braille book

 

(3^rd place in the 21^st Kusamakura International Haiku Competition)

 

優しくなでる

吹かれて落ちた桜の花を

彼女の点字本に

 

Gazing into

his reflection on the mirror –

dad’s dementia

 

見つめる

鏡に映った自分の姿を

お父さんの認知症

 

Heatwave – getting

some rest in the shade

of new verses

 

熱波－得る

日陰での休息を

新しい詩の

 

Mist lifting –

the same streets, the same potholes

the same masks

 

かすみが立ちこめる－

同じ通り、同じくぼみ

同じマスク

 

Big party – a moth’s

fluttering for a nook

to hide in

 

大きなパーティー－蛾が

隅で羽ばたきする

隠れるために

 

Kids sloshing

in the puddles – spring

equinox

 

子供たちがはねを上げて歩く

水たまりで－春

春分

 

Snow turning into

sludge – the many faces

of the commuters

 

雪に変わる

雪解けに－多くの顔つき

通勤者の

 

Twilight –

an ivy struggling up

the tumbledown wall

 

たそがれ－

苦労して這い上がろうとするツタ

つぶれそうな壁を

 

Road fork –

the face of mist

on both sides

 

道路の分岐点－

霧の正面

両側に

 

Class of 1994

reunion – only the café’s

chairs came

 

1994年のクラス

再会－カフェの

椅子だけが来た

 

— Translated by Hidenori Hiruta

 

Brief Bio

Vassilis Comporozos from Agrinio, Greece, (Wdate of birth: 1974) is an English Language Teacher – Translator. He currently works at Primary Schools in Agrinio and as a translator.

He has published some poetry collections (two of them with haiku and tanka) as well as translations of English literary works (and masterpieces) into Greek, one of them from Middle English for the first time in Greece (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by an anonymous author).

He has received some 1^st and 2^nd awards in poetry contests in Greece and the 3^rd (shared with others) in the 21^st Kusamakura International Haiku Competition (Kumamoto, Japan 2016).

One of his tanka has been included in a handbook of English Language teaching (for English – speaking students) published by Oxford University Press.

He has published poems (among them haiku and tanka) in various literary journals, some of them in English (World Haiku Review, Chrysanthemum). He loves reading world literature, especially English, Japanese and Chinese. He also speaks Italian and engages in Latin language and Byzantine hymnology.