Make up your mind, Snail!
You are half inside your house,
And halfway out!
being an orphan
I cast no light…
firefly
haiku by Kobayashi Issa (English translation by David G. Lanoue), illustrated with a cartoon by Jessica Tremblay (Old Pond Comics)
Since January 2016, Old Pond Comics is published in Japan. I’ve been working with Emiko Miyashita, a haiku poet who is writing a monthly column on haiku translations for the new journal Haidan. Every month, Emiko sends me three haiku and I provide a haiku-cartoon to accompany her article.
The publisher sends me copies of the journals, but only months after publication, so Emiko occasionally sends me pictures of what the article looks like as soon as she gets her copy.
Here’s a photo of the May 2016 issue showing beautiful Japanese items on her desk. She gave me permission to share this.
Haidan (May 2016 issue). Photo by Emiko Miyashita.
Here’s the comic:
In the distant hills
A patch where sunlight touches
The withered meadows.
— Kyoshi (haiku translated by Donald Keene)
the setting place
for the spring sun…
wisteria blossoms
– Haiku by Kobayashi Issa (translated by David G. Lanoue), illustrated by Jessica Tremblay
NaHaiWriMo #5: letter z
the spring breeze pushes
somebody
down the slope
– Haiku by Kobayashi Issa, Tr. David G. Lanoue, ill. Old Pond Comics
the setting place
for the spring sun…
wisteria blossoms
– Haiku by Kobayashi Issa, Tr. David G. Lanoue, ill. Old Pond Comics
This is my submission to NaHaiWriMo for days # 7/8 nearest/native.
the cut grass
sticks to my feet…
autumn rain
— Haiku by Kobayashi Issa
Tr. David G. Lanoue haikuguy.com/issa
Illustrated by Old Pond Comics
