TAKAHA Shugyo was born in Yamagata in 1930, began writing haiku when he was 15 years old and studied haiku from YAMAGUCHI Seishi and AKIMOTO Fujio. He is founder and leader of the haiku magazine "Kari" (Hunting) established in 1978. He is a Mainichi newspaper and NHK's National Haiku Contest judge, president of the Association of Haiku Poets, adviser to the Haiku International Association and a director of the Japan Writers' Association. He received the Minister of Education's Young Poets Award in 1965 for his haiku collection "Birth" and in 1975, the Mainichi Newspaper Art Award for "Wing Lights" and "Thirteenth Day Moon". He has published many haiku collections, critiques, guide books and anthologies.

 
ochitsubaki ware naraba kyuhryu e otsu

fallen camellias——
if I were one,
I'd throw myself into the torrent
matenro yori shinryoku ga paseri hodo

from the skyscraper
the fresh greenery of the trees
looks just like parsley
(Empire State Building )

kurumi waru kurumi no naka ni tsukawanu heya

cracking open a walnut
and inside the shell——
one unused room

michinoku no hoshiiri tsurara ware ni kure yo

give me an icicle
containing the stars
of the deep north
ittsui ka ittaiichi ka karenobito

are they lovers?
are they rivals?
two people on the withered moor

 

(Chosen and translated by HOSHINO Tsunehiko and Adrian PINNINGTON)