Haiku by Vladislava Simonova (Ukraine)
***
Пишу на песке.
Вновь утащила волна
хайку в дальний путь.
***
Writing on the sand –
and again a wave drives my haiku
So far away.
***
砂上の句再び波の持ち去れり
Winner of JAL Foundation Award（JAL財団賞) in the Russian section of the 7th Japan-Russia Haiku Contest 2018.
HAIKU to Akita’s “Haiku Beyond Earth”
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Barely arrived –
and already chased away
by the broom, first snow.
待ち侘びた初雪払う箒かな
***
Flowers for sale,
wrapped in a newspaper.
News of the wartime.
新聞に花を包んで売っているその新聞に戦のニュース
***
Shake off all the snow—
it is not yet time to leave,
oh, chrysanthemums!
雪払ひ咲き続けよと菊に乞ふ
***
A blast has echoed.
Only the moon in the sky
did not even flinch.
爆発音微動だにせぬ空の月
***
I looked with sorrow
at the tattered folding fan:
autumn has arrived.
ぼろぼろの秋の扇子を眺めけり
***
As if two worlds—
beneath the crust of sheer ice,
the moss is still green.
氷張るその下に苔二つの世
***
By morning, grasses
turned into rare treasures bright,
glistening with frost.
朝霜に輝く草や宝物
***
I’ll place my bonsai
so the clock can’t be seen.
盆栽の世界に浸る時忘れ
***
Who will surrender?
The windows of my neighbor
and mine still shine.
降伏の様子の見えぬ窓々は隣家や我が家光を放つ
***
Will snow remember
all of the traces we leave
until spring returns?
雪女春立つ日まで跡を追ふ
***
Note: Short Japanese Poetry of 17 phonetic Units of 5, 7, 5 Pattern
Inspired by ten English haiku by Vladislava Simonova, Hidenori Hiruta translated them literally into Japanese short poems first of all.
As a result, eight interpretative Japanese poems of 5, 7, 5 pattern are added to the English haiku as above. Some of them might be haiku（俳句）, and others senryū（川柳).
And two interpretative Japanese tanka（短歌）poems of 5, 7, 5, 7, 7 pattern are added to the English haiku as above.
This is because English is different from Japanese.
***
Bio:
Vladislava Simonova was born on March 23, 1999 in Kharkiv into a family of a soldier and a teacher. She graduated from art school in the violin class and was interested in writing poetry and photography since her school days.
When she was hospitalized for heart disease at the age of 14, she found a book of Japanese poetry in her room, which prompted her to start writing haiku.
At the age of 18, she won the top prize in the student division of an international haiku contest held in Akita City, Japan.
Since 2019, her haiku have been featured in the Akita International Haiku Network and in the e-journal Serow (Kamoshika).
With the support of the Ukrainian Embassy in Japan, her first haiku collection, 『ウクライナ、地下壕から届いた俳句』 , or Ukraine, Haiku from the Underground Shelter: The Wings of a Butterfly, was published by Shueisha International in August 2023.
In April 2024, her second haiku collection, 『俳句ウクライナから日本へ 297歩』, or Haiku: From Ukraine to Japan, 297 Steps, was published by Rekishi Tanbosha in Japan.
Her haiku have been put in various newspapers and online media, including Chunichi Shimbun, Kyodo News, Akita Sakigake Shimpo, Yomiuri Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, San-in Chuo Shimpo, NHK’s ETV Special and so on.
Akita International Haiku Network 