™Ryo Suzuki -6™
Mr. Kenji Fukami and I belong to the same Tai-Chi class. Some time ago we had
a chance to talk about haiku for about two hours in a coffee shop in Shinjuku.
I wanted him to understand even a part of English language haiku and just by chance
it occurred to me to tell him about a talk I had several years ago with Mr. Alexander
Baird. He is a British poet and lectured on English literature at Hiroshima University
25 years ago. He came to Odawara with his wife who visited Logos as a Trinity College
English examiner that summer. I learned something about English poetry from him and
he became very interested in English language haiku.
a swan
fills
the lake
Alexis Rotella (New Jersey, USA)
When he read the above verse, he did not like it so much at first and said, "I wonder
why the writer used 'a swan' instead of 'swans'." I showed him my following verse and
asked him, "Don't you think both verses have something in common?"
dewdrops on the twigs
expand endlessly absorbing
songs of cicadas
I saw the dewdrops one morning just after I finished Tai-Chi Chuan practice in a quiet
park. It had rained the previous night and the dewdrops were glistening so beautifully
on the twigs that I approached them and was fascinated with them as if I were being
absorbed into them. After Mr. Fukami heard this story, he became very interested in
English language haiku, and began to talk very keenly even about the issues concerning
Japanese language haiku. I felt he must have not accepted English language haiku as haiku
before that.
Chinese tune
softly hummed
silences a frog
"my neighborhood" by Ryo Suzuki
to Home Page