Yamaguchi Seishi

Yamaguchi Seishi 山口誓子, やまぐち せいし

（1901.11.03 - 1994.03.26）

Studend of Takahama Kyoshi. Member of Hototogisu.

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雪敷きて 海に近寄る こともなし

yuki shikite umi ni chikayoru koto mo nashi

a carpet of snow
keeping me from going close
to the ocean's edge

Composed 1941

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The heron is a stately bird. In 1947 Seishi Yamaguchi composed a haiku about one speedily lifting off into a winter sky. In the spring of 1967 he wrote a noteworthy poem about two early rising mothers in Ise: one a shopkeeper and the other a swallow.
　
Three hundred poems by the late master poet were translated in 5-7-5 syllable form by Takashi Kodaira and Alfred Marks in The Essence of Modern Haiku published in 1993 by Mangajin.

sagi tonde sugu setsurei no ue ni izu

heron taking off
in a moment hovering
over snowy peak


sutsubame mo same-ite yoji ni kama o taku

kindling a fire
at 4 a.m. when only
mother swallow stirs

David McMurray, Asahi Shinbun Company
http://www.asahi.com/english/haiku/050221.html

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Quote from the World Haiku Review
Susumu Takiguchi

umi ni dete kogarashi kaeru tokoro nashi

blowing itself over the sea,
there's no place for winter wind
to go back

version by ST. Read more in the WHR.

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tookoo ya kyuu-Ro no machi wa ari to nomi

A frozen harbor —
what was once a Russian town
there and nothing more.

The harbour is the old town of Oodomari in 1926.
Read a discussion of this haiku by
Vaughn Seward, Translating Haiku Forum

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俳人。京都生。東大法学部卒。名は新比古。高浜虚子・水原秋桜子に師事する。
『馬酔木』『ホトトギス』同人となり秋桜子・阿波野青畝・高野素十らと昭和初期『ホトトギス』の黄金時代を築く。芸術院賞受賞。
文化功労者。平成６年（1994）歿、92才。

山口誓子



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