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If Someone Asks… Masaoka Shiki’s Life and Haiku, translations by The Shiki-Kinen Museum English Volunteers, pp. 73, Matsuyama Municipal Shiki-Kinen Museum, Printed by Myojo Printing Company, Japan, September 2001 [available from the Museum, 1-30, Gogo-Koen, Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan, 790-0857, Tel: 089-931-5556, E-mail: sikihaku@city.matsuyama.ehime.jp

Reviewed by

Susumu Takigchi
Oxford, England

 

This is a new book of some international importance. It was published last autumn by Matsuyama Municipal Shiki-Kinen Museum in Japan.

Called If Someone Asks… Masaoka Shiki’s Life and Haiku, the book, though of modest size, is a new addition to a corner of the bookshelves of haiku-loving people across the world, especially fans and students of Shiki. It should be characterised as a selection of Shiki’s haiku in Japanese and English and designed to be read primarily by non-Japanese people in English translation.

Sixteen volunteers have worked hard to accomplish this worthy translation project. The book is the result (one wants to say a “triumph”) of five years’ efforts, intensive reading of over 20, 000 of Shiki’s haiku (out of 25, 444 haiku which Shiki is estimated by one academic to have written, or 23, 600 according to this book), and endless discussion among the people concerned. In the preface, it is declared that they are not scholars or professional translators. They therefore restricted their selections to those poems which they liked -- real labour of love. Their favourite poems gave them the starting point: about 500 haiku. These were eventually whittled down to the final 116. Only history will judge the quality of the translation but the unassuming, uncluttered and sincere style in plain English without any extra information imposed on the poems has an immediate attraction and seems most appropriate to convey the feelings of Shiki when he wrote the poems in “simple and direct language, avoiding difficult or esoteric expressions” (quoted from the book’s “Shiki’s Life and Times”).

It is an interesting and encouraging discovery that the procedure which the translators formulated for themselves to arrive at final versions looks surprisingly similar to that which the World Haiku Club has created for its Masaoka Shiki translation project. In their useful explanation about how they did the translation work, the translators give an account of what they call an “unusual” process: “With each haiku, we started by writing on a board the translation(s) of one or more of the members. Then we all tackled it together; discussing the meaning and making changes until we had something we liked. Over the years we went over each one again and again, always as a group.”

The compact book seems to have everything: photographs, a chronology of Shiki’s life, short accounts of haiku, of translation and of romanisation, a short reading list, the index of selected haiku by season and in chronological order in each section. In other words, the book can also be used as a handy introduction to haiku. The brief account of Shiki’s life set against the time he lived in, only two pages long, is one of the best writings of the kind. Academic books on Shiki in English are woefully needed. However, this book will bring Shiki right into the heart of ordinary haiku-lovers and take them directly through the wonderful world of his haiku poems.

Of particular use is the way in which each haiku is arranged: first, it is presented in the original Japanese, followed by the English translation and romanised version. Then the season of the haiku is given with the kigo used both in English and Japanese. The age at which Shiki wrote that particular haiku is also given and last but not least some account (including maegaki) is given in many poems to explain the background and circumstances of the haiku in question.

Some translations are brilliant but masked by modesty:

supari supari asa karu waza no omoshiroki

swish, swish –
mesmerized by
the flax cutter’s skill

furansu no sumire o fusu shoshin kana

a letter
from France
with a violet

kimi o okurite omou koto ari kaya ni naku

after saying good-bye
mixed feelings well up
crying inside the mosquito net

mukiote naku ya uzura no kago futatsu

facing each other
the quails call out
from two cages

shiokumi no michimichi tsuki o koboshikeri

salt worker carrying sea water
spilling moons on the way

 

And the wonderful haiku from which the title of the book was derived:

 

hito towaba mada ikiteiru aki no kaze

if someone asks
say I’m still alive
autumn wind

There are quite a few haiku which have also been studied at WHC’s Shiki Translation Project:

 

ikutabi mo yuki no fukasa o tazunekeri

again and again
I asked the depth
of the falling snow

kaki kueba kane ga naru nari horyuji

biting into a persimmon
a bell resounds
Horyuji

keito no jushigo hon mo arinu beshi

cockscombs
there must be 14 or 15

 

Let me pick up some more of the poems which have also been discussed at WHC:

 

garasu-goshi ni fuyu no hi ataru byoma kana

winter sunshine
streaming through the glass
my sickroom

sanzen no haiku o kemishi kaki futatsu

after judging
three thousand haiku
two persimmons

yuku ware ni todomaru nare ni aki futatsu

me leaving
you staying
two autumns

maki o waru imoto hitori fuyugomori

my younger sister
chopping firewood alone –
house-bound in winter

hitoe zutsu hitoe zutsu chire yaezakura

double cherry blossom
release your petals one at a time
one at a time

 

There are haiku poems we can enjoy fully without knowing Shiki’s misfortune:

 

natuarashi kijo no hakushi tobi tsukusu

the white paper on the desk
has all flown away
summer gale

yukaze ya shirobara no hana mina ugoku

evening breeze –
the white roses
all moving

kaki hikushi bangasa toru haru no ame

the low fence
a plain umbrella passes
spring rain

awa no ho no koko o tatakuna kono haka o

ears of wild millet –
don’t beat against this,
this tombstone

nido yori wa toranu kisha ya hanasusuki

the train passes through
only twice a day
flowering silver grass

taezu hito ikou natsuno no ishi hitotsu

the rock
in the summer field
someone is always resting

byonin ni hitoeda misen ume no hana

plum blossoms
just have to show a branch
to the invalid

oshiote mata unohana no sakikobore

deutzia blossoms jostling,
overflowing again

nanohana ya patto akaruki machi hazure

canola flowers
sudden brightness
at the edge of town

mushi no ne o fumiwake yuku ya no no komichi

clearing my way
through the chirping of insects
path in the field

 

Shiki was brave in the face of his tragic life. He was even cheerful at times. However, deep down, the intensity of his sorrow, desperation and agony touches us immensely:

 

kaki ku mo kotoshi bakari to omoikeri

and I’m afraid
this year is my last
to eat persimmons

fude mo sumi mo shibin mo uchi no aki no kaya

a brush and ink and a urinal
inside the mosquito net in autumn

shukaido ni mukeru yamai no nedoko kana

turned
toward the begonias
my sickbed

byosho no umeki ni washite aki no semi

my sickbed groanings
accompanied by
autumn cicadas

hatsugoyomi satsuki no uchi ni shinu hi ari

new year’s calendar
there is a day for me to die
in May

haeuchi o mochite inemuru mitori kana

my nurse –
dozing
flyswatter in hand

  hae o uchi ka o yaki yamu mi tsumi fukashi

swatting flies
burning mosquitoes
this sinful invalid

 
hina araba musume araba to omoikeri

how I wish
I had hina dolls and
a daughter

 
yomei ikubakuka aru yo mijikashi

how much remains
of my life
the nights are short

natsuyase no hone ni todomaru inochi kana

a life
clinging to the bones
summer lethargy

 
naki nagara ari ni hikaruru aki no semi

crying
as it’s dragged away by ants –
cicada in autumn

nani to sen haha yasetamo aki no kaze

what can I do?
mother’s grown so thin
autumn wind

And then, of course, Shiki’s earliest recorded haiku and his death poems:

 
yukifuri ya mune no shironeko koe bakari

snow –
white cat on the roof ridge
just its voice

hechima saite tan no tsumarishi hotoke kana

the sponge gourd is in bloom
this hotoke
choked by phlegm

tan itto hechima no mizu mo maniawazu

gallons of phlegm
too late
even for water from the gourd plant

ototoi no hechima no mizu mo torazariki

the sponge gourd water
of two days ago
wasn’t even collected

 

These modest people who have given us such delightful translation of Shiki’s haiku as are contained in this book must not be kept anonymous: Abe Shigeharu, Ishida Kumiko, Ishimaru Fujiko, Ishitoya Keiko, Miyoshi Ikuko, Nakayama Asako, Noma Minako, Ochi Yasuko, Ojima Kyoko, Onishi Yoko, Taizan Sachiko, Tamai Kiyomi, Tamura Nanae, Tanaka Kimiyo, Tanioka Hiroe, Ruth Vergin (all surname first, given name second, except for the last person)

 

 

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