Four Curiosity-Hunting Tanka
by Kyūsaku Yumeno

A statue of the Buddha
eased out from beneath the snow
when struck by the wind
opened its eyes a little

A window somewhere in the hospital
A single eye awakening
in the deep, snowy night—

Electric wires buzzing in the winter sky
only when they report a death
fall silent

Winter wind, cold and clear
in the sky of trees—
radish carcasses without end

猟奇歌
夢野久作

雪の底から抱へ出された
仏様が
風にあたると
眼をすこし開けた

病院の何処かの窓が
たゞ一つ眼ざめて動く
雪の深夜に――

冬空にヂン／＼と鳴る電線が
死報の時だけ
ヒツソリとなる

冬の風つめたく晴れて
木の空に
大根の死骸かぎりなし

Winter
by Bochō Yamamura

Setting an electric current in your chest
A dazzling light
The illusion of a pearl necklace—
Reach out suddenly,
Your hands of hungry crystal…
Oh, a cup of sake
What kind of idiotic snow this is
What … a fountain of staring fingertips?

冬
山村暮鳥

ふところに電流を仕掛け
眞珠頸飾りのいりゆじよん
ひかりまばゆし
ぬつとつき出せ
餓ゑた水晶のその手を……
おお酒杯
何といふ間抜けな雪だ
何と……凝視るゆびさきの噴水。

Song of Winter Hatred
by Akiko Yosano

Oh, hated winter—
In our home winter is
a terror, a curse,
an intruder,
an atrocity, a mourning.

You shake loose the leaves of the willow trees lining the streets,
Leaving only trembling branches like rusted copper wire,
Turning the garden chrysanthemums into whitened coals
And making the hooves of cattle pitch forward on frost,
Oh winter, nothing is more tiresome!

Moving onto its next assault,
Winter has somehow arrived at our house first.
Winter becomes wind, piercing the door,
Pushes in through the porches,
Turns to frost and hides in the tatami.

Winter becomes influenza,
Becomes asthma,
Becomes bronchitis,
Becomes pneumonia,
Torturing all eight of us, parents and children alike.

We become neighbors of starvation and death,
Chills, and fever, and coughing,
The smell of fever, and sweat, and inhaled steam,
Groans, and screams, and faintings in agony,
Filled with phlegm, and medicine, and tears.

Ten days thus pass … still not any better,
Oh, I’m going mad!
How I wish to take a dagger,
And stab you, just once,
Hated, hated, winter—right in the back.

冬を憎む歌
与謝野晶子

ああ憎き冬よ、
わが家のために、冬は
恐怖なり、咀ひなり、
闖入者なり、
虐殺なり、喪なり。

街街の柳の葉を揺り落して、
錆びたる銅線の如く枝のみを慄はしめ、園の菊を枝炭の如く灰白ませ、
家畜の蹄を霜の上にのめらしめて、
ああ猶飽くことを知らざるや、冬よ

冬は更に人間を襲ひて、
先づわが家に来りぬ。
冬は風となりて戸を穿ち、
縁よりせり出し、
霜となりて畳に潜めり。

冬はインフルエンザとなり、
喘息となり、
気管支炎となり、
肺炎となりて、
親と子と八人を責め苛む。

わが家は飢ゑと死に隣し、
寒さと、熱と、咳と、
熱の香と、汗と、吸入の蒸気と、
呻吟と、叫びと、悶絶と、
啖と、薬と、涙とに満てり。

かくて十日……猶癒えず、
ああ我心は狂はんとす、
短劔を執りて、
ただ一撃に刺さばや、
憎き、憎き冬よ、その背を。

Winter House
by Nobuko Yonezawa

A house without a single window
stands right in the middle of winter

Every day the people in it
were thinking the same thing

How I want to dance
upon a sunlit lawn
How I want to get on a swing
and swing, just once

冬の家
米澤順子

窓の一つもない家が
冬のただ中に立つてゐる

その中の人は
毎日同じ事ばかり考へた

日のあたる芝生の上で
踊つて見たいな
ほんのひと搖れ
ぶらんこに乘つて見たいな

Snow and Waterfall
by Sōnosuke Satō

Color the air!
I stand on the other side of the ravine
Staring at the waterfall’s endless fireworks
Tumbling down from the snowy mountain chasm
I cut through this snow-white living photograph
With skillful intuition
Putting forth all my pure, pure emotions
I snap open the shell of midday
Like a sharp Ezo scallop
The atmosphere! Set it alight!
It’s too bright, it’s too snow white!

雪と瀧
佐藤惣之助

空氣に色をつけよ
僕は谿の空中をへだてて
雪の山嶽の裂け目から
ぼうぼうと落下する瀧の花火を見つめる
こんなにも雪白な、生きた寫眞を
鮮かな感覺をもつて切斷し
きよらかなる、きよらかなる情感を盡して
僕は尖れる帆立貝のやうに
眞晝の扇をうちひらく
大氣よ、色を點ぜよ
あまりにかがやき、あまりに雪白すぎる。

Four Tanka
by Byakuren Yanagihara

Snow falls
As cold as people’s hearts
I awake
In the middle of the night
Tears frozen

Snow passes through
Its hands reaching out
Like a giant’s
Chasing after something—
Hurrying, then vanishing

Like the thoughts of a man
Gently sinking into
His breast
Falling, and accumulating—
A snowy evening

Jotted down on the snow
In front of the shrine
On New Year’s Day
Before anyone else’s—
My own footprints

短歌
柳原 白蓮

雪や降る人の心のつめたさのなみだや凍る夜半の寝覚めに

雪は行く巨人のごとき手をひろげ物追ふごとく走りて消えぬ

人のおもひしづかに胸にしむごとく降りてつもりぬ雪の夕やみ

雪の上にしるされけるは宮まうで誰よりさきのわれのあしあと（社頭雪）

In the Winter Quiet (Five Tanka)
by Kuniko Imai

Right around
The deepening of winter
The evening grows darker, and lonelier
In the waters of this moat
A floating waterfowl

Darkening dusk
Faintly sinking
Into unmoving waters
Upon them
A floating waterfowl

On such an evening
The moat water
Is bound with ice
Light unmoving
In the depths of the dusk

Canal waters
Clear and cool
Bathing endlessly
In the evening light—
A floating waterfowl

Even waterfowl
Move faintly
In the waters of the moat
Rippling light
Slow to darken

冬しづかに
今井邦子

冬深みあたりさびしく暮れてゆく
この濠の水に浮ぶ水鳥

夕暮るるひかりかすかに沈みたる
水うごかずて浮ぶ水鳥

かかる夜に氷かむすぶ濠のみづは
ひかり動かず夕闇の底に

濠のみづ冴えて冷たしゆふ光しみらに
あびて浮ぶみづとり

水鳥もかすかに動き濠の水にさざなみ光り
暮れなやむかな

Winter and Snow
by Fude Iga

Ah, it’s cold, it’s cold
It gets so cold when winter hits—
That’s what everyone says, but
Oh! From the sky, white and gorgeous
flowers are falling
and the name of these flowers is snow
It’s snow
Snow! Hey, snow!
What country do you come from?
Whisper it to me
It’s just you who softly descended
all over the country, all over the town, and turned them white
The children and the dogs are all out celebrating
But most everyone else says—
Oh, it’s cold! I hate these white sky-flowers!
Oh, it’s cold, it’s cold!

冬と雪
伊賀ふで

ああ寒い寒い
冬になるとほんとうに寒い
みなはそういうけれど
おお   空から白く美しい
花が舞い降りてきた
その花の名は雪
雪である
雪よ雪よ
あなたのお国は何というお国
私にそっと教えてください
あなただけがそっと舞い降りてきた
国じゅう町じゅうを真っ白にする
それでも子どもや小犬は大喜びする
でも大勢のものはいう
おお寒い   空の白い花は嫌いだと
おお寒い寒いと

Aa meyan meyan
Mataba ango meyan
Inan kurkay ene hawki
Oo kando orwa retar
Apoppo oranwa eppu koran
Enean apoppo anappu ubas nean
Ubas ubas apoppo ubas
Eani kotan nekon haw kotanneya
Kuani oreni koynurewa ekoreyan
Eani bateppu ankor
Kotan or eppuwa
Asir ubas asiko kotanmosir oput taretar
Pon ekattar
Pon sitatura yaynu cattekkani an appukay
Uwatte utar enehawki
Aa meyan apoppo kukociyannaa
Aa meyan meyan

Three Haiku
by Hokuto Iboshi

A night so long
You don’t just read the news
But the ads, too

Pack ice
A seagull hitching a ride
On its flow

In the snowy sky
A single star—
The bare trees of winter

俳句
違星北斗

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