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Wednesday, February 28, 2007

a kimono for a sail


一茶
.帷を帆にして走る小舟かなkatabira wo ho ni shite hashiru kobune kana

David‘s English
a kimono for a sail
rushing along...
little boat

The light summer garment in question is made of hemp: katabira. In this archive, I translate both katabira and awase as "summer kimono." However, in the present haiku I call it simply, "a kimono," because it the English translation seems simpler and cleaner, I think, if we leave out the word, "summer."

1812, Age 50
Eleventh Month, 14th day, he leaves Edo. Same month, 24th day, he returns to live in his native village of Kashiwabara.

sakuo renku-1
頬に夏風大川の土手
hoho ni natsu-kaze ookawa no dote

summer window to cheek
on the bank of Sumida River

2 comments:

J. Andrew Lockhart said...

very nice!

Unknown said...

Thank you,andrew san for your compliment.

sakuo.