Haiku
English Adaptation by Brian Fergusson
Striving to construe
the hidden language of flowers
I have lost my way
I may yield
beneath
the wiles of the cunning wind
but never the yoke
Scanty-clad the
grass
stealthy lily of the vale:
fleetingly naked
Lilac citadel
of bucolic innocence
guileless enshrouded
Tortured embers
glow
let us ravish blackberries
from the reddish slugs
Faces from Asia
their luscious apple-like cheeks
silken as a lake
Sated and drunk on
the bitter grapes of autumn
lost in reverie
Wherefore the
willow
I should weep: the cat does mew
ripples on water
Flighty, fickle
you
in such restless spirits I:
lost and thwarted we!
The fledgling
marvels
when the bluebells of springtime
make fragrant the rain
If moved by the rain
the snail at its own pace climbs
the box hedge stalk
The screeching
barn owls
far off in the winter’s night:
snowbound love affairs
