Withering Winds: a translation

 

 

Withering Winds

Journeying so far in the rain, my hat has split apart at the seams. Nightly my paper coat does battle with the elements.

Having grown familiar with poverty, I try a little self-pity. But there was once an eccentric fellow - a crazy waka Master - who travelled these parts stirring up the countryside. And it occurs to me to simply take my turn:

Basho  

crazy verse, caught in the withering winds alas how I must look like Chikusai —

Basho

狂句こがらしの身は竹斎に似たる哉

who's that - a spray of sasanqua on his hat?

Yasui

たそやとばしるかさの山茶花

at dawn the Water Keeper opening up the liquor store

Kakei

有明の主水に酒屋つくらせて

a red pack-horse tosses dew from her mane

Jugo

か しらの露をふるふあかむま

Korean grass it's slender blades stripped of any scent

Tokoku

朝鮮の細りすすきのにほひなき

as daylight dwindles fields of rice are mown

Shohei

日のちりちりに野に米を苅

this little retreat, here may the heron find a place to rest

Yasui

わがいほは鷺にやどかすあたりに

willing the hair to re-grow such is my lot

Basho

髮はやすまをしのぶ身のほど

all the illusion and heartache she says squeezing dry her breasts

Jugo

いつはりのつらしと乳をしぼりすて

desolate tears shed at a timeless stupa

Kakei

きえぬそとばにすごすごとなく

in the cold of dawn a shadowed figure starts to build a fire

Basho

影法のあかつきさむく火を燒て

sheer penury has made the owner homeless

Tokoku

あるじはひんにたえし虚家

the koman willow in the paddy field soon to drop its leaves

Kakei

田中なるこまんが柳落るころ

tugging a boat through the mist is he lame?

Yasui

霧にふね引人はちんばか

with a sideways glance askance to weigh the dainty moon

Tokoku

たそがれを横にながむる月ほそし

retired from court, now for noisy neighbours

Jugo

となりさかしき町に下り居る

number two nun asked if the blossom at the guards has peaked

Yasui

二の尼に近衛の花のさかりきく

butterflies in weeds she blows through her nose

Basho

蝶はむぐらにとばかり鼻かむ

a conveyance, the gap in its screen allows the glimpse of a face

Jugo

のり物に簾透顔おぼろなる

now - a voice - fire that bitter arrow!

Kakei

いまぞ恨の矢をはなつ声

the outlaw’s commemorative pine broken by the wind

Basho

ぬす人の記念の松の吹おれて

for a time Sogi’s name went with a river

Tokoku

しばし宗祇の名を付し水

removing my hat to get a good soak, cold northern drizzle

Kakei

笠ぬぎて無理にもぬるゝ北時雨

a single endive pushing through the dieback

Yasui

冬がれわけてひとり唐苣

shattered shards of white on white, are these remains not human?

Tokoku

しらじらと砕けしは人の骨か何

cuttlefish bones, a northman's divination

Jugo

烏賊はゑびすの国のうらかた

the riddle of this sadness unresolved, mountain cuckoo

Yasui

あはれさの謎にもとけし郭公

an urn of limpid water in one night!

Basho

秋水一斗もりつくす夜ぞ

Japan's Li Po, his temple quarters, gazing at the moon

Jugo

日東の李白が坊に月を見て

tucked in the lutist's hood a rose of sharon

Kakei

巾に木槿をはさむ琵琶打

remembrance for a long dead ox, grass by evening light

Basho

うしの跡とぶらふ草の夕ぐれに

a small basket of shad borne on her head

Tokoku

箕に鮗の魚をいたゞき

my prayers to the morning star that I might be with child

Kakei

わがいのりあけがたの星孕むべく

little sister's eyebrows officially today!

Yasui

けふはいもとのまゆかきにゆき

silken gauze, the bathing water strained of Shiga blossom

Tokoku

綾ひとへ居湯に志賀の花漉て

a walkway trailed in deep wisteria shade

Jugo

廊下は藤のかげつたふ也

Translation by John E. Carley, with his daughter Edith Carley

    November, 2013 Rossendale, Lancashire, England