Just Tanka

Frosty
lost in the rice fields
a lone egret
in one hundred acres wide
of blinding white

~J & in-sac

paperwhite
above the highway
the autumn sky
for fifty miles
in a bridal veil

~J

As dusk gathers
cool breezes sweep across
the city of trees
sparkles with christmas lights
as far as the eyes can see


~J

Like a grey curtain
the rain flows in from the north,
slowly veiling sky,
then the mountains, then the hills,
then the trees just down the road.

Late-autumn--
scampering through the fence
a busy squirrel;
will I also remember
where simple joys are hidden?

morning mists
mask the waterways
at the Delta
die-hard fishermen cast
hooks,lines and sinkers

No birds or art making
came to visit today...
this pond viewing silence--
did yesterday's funeral
also leave me to mourn autumn?

Morning sun
engraved on the pond--
the first ice
slowly melts into circles
as the mallards socialize.

Two cats are curled up
beside each other upon
my blanketed lap.
Maybe, after winter leaves,
we will want to move again.

endless rain
in the fireplace
yule logs fiercely burn
two with winter flu
snuggled in bed

drizzle and fog
mistletoe sprouts on the old oak
in the valley
Caro Gesu Bambino
plays on the radio

the first freeze
ruins the orange crop
in the foothills
what am I to do
for my morning juice

    When the evening mist
rises above the rushes
    and the wild duck calls
as well in the chilly dusk,
it is you that I think of.


Anonymous poem from book XIV. Modernized original:


ashi no ha ni
yuugiri tachite
kamo ga ne no
samuki yuuhe shi
na o ba shinowamu

cartharctic band-aid
spiritual antiseptic
as these words bleed out
the splinter falls out with them
will another one prick me?

    I must leave you now
for far Inaba's mountains,
    peaks covered with pines,
but should I hear that you pine
I will return home at once.


Original by Ariwara no Yukihira, brother of Narihira, who uses the infamously translatable pivot word matsu = pine tree/wait a.k.a. pine for, as well as inaba = (name of province)/when go:


tachiwakare
inaba no yama no
mine ni oru
matsu to shi kikaba
ima kaerikomu

movie pass
in my winter coat
memories
of our first kiss
on snow mill peak

Even snoring
hurts enough to wake me
in the dark blue dawn -
listening to the wind
rattle the window

    The Godless Month weaves
a brocade of leaves into
    Tatsuta River,
using the rains of early
winter as its warp and weft.


Author unknown. Kannazuki ("godless month") is an old name for the tenth month, roughly November in the former lunisolar calendar, when the eight million Shinto gods supposedly left their local shrines to attend a convention in Izumo. Original:


tatsuta gawa
nishiki orikaku
kannazuki
shigure no ame o
tatenuki ni shite

I was previously using the journal heyes, but now it's seyeh A subtle change I know. During my absence I made a bunch of you Moderators and Maintainers. Since a Maintainer could delete the community I have since pulled that back. For more information on what that's all about, check FAQ #225. If you have been made a moderator you don't have to do anything differently, but it would be a help if you could:
A: Check out the moderation queue (when there is one)
B: Delete entries and comments that do not contain a tanka

Thanks.

---

Clinging to glass
droplets slowly slide along
the window
soon the water will freeze
and frost will coat the yard

Princess Itou, writing in the mid-9th century to her son, Ariwara no Narihira, when he was too busy at court to visit:


    so old am I   that
inevitable time of
    parting draws near   and
my desire to see you   my
dear   grows ever more intense


His reply:


    I wish there were no
inevitable partings
    in this world   for the
sake of the children who pray for
their parents' eternal life


Translated by Rodd and Henkenius, original texts:

oinureba
saranu wakare mo
ari to ieba
iyoiyo mimaku
hoshiki kimi kana

yo no naka ni
srarnu wakare no
naku no gana
chiyo mo to nageku
hito no ko no tame