Eric HoffmanOzaki Hōsai was the haigo (haikai pen name) of Ozaki Hideo (1885 - 1926), a Japanese poet of the late Meiji and Taishō periods of Japan and a practitioner of the modern free verse haiku movement.
Translations of some very early haiku by Ozaki Hōsai
(from Tottori, c. 1899-1902)
きれ凧の糸かかりけり梅の枝
kire-dako no ito kakari keri ume no eda
Stray kite
entwined
in plum branches
水打つて静かな家や夏やなぎ
mizu utte shizuka na ie ya natsu-yanagi
House silent
after rain—
summer willow
病いへずうつうつとして春くるる
yamai iezu utsu-utsu to shite haru kururu
Spring ends—
still unwell,
filled with discontent
峠路や時雨晴れたり馬の声
toge-ji ya shigure hare tari uma no koe
Mountain road,
winter rainclouds disperse—
a horse neighs
酒のまぬ身は葛水のつめたさよ
sake nomanu mi wa kassui no tsumetasa
Stone sober—
my body cold
as want
Eric Hoffman is the author of several collections of poetry, most recently This Thin Mean: New Selected Poems (Spuyten Duyvil, 2020) and the editor of the newly published Conversations with John Berryman (University Press of Mississippi, 2021).
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