Spring breezes —
How'd I'd love to throw a ball
Over a grassy field.
After killing
The spider, what loneliness —
The cold of night.
Trampling through
Insect cries, I create
A path through the fields.
Columbia, 2013
Donald Keene
Masaoka Shiki (1867 ~ 1902)
haiku / tanka master
cover self portrait watercolor
translations by Burton Watson
translations by Burton Watson
baseball lover; prolonged spinal illness
the last 7 years of Shiki's life were confined to his sickbed
when he wrote the majority of his work
leaving behind at his death at 35
22 volumes of writing
each book is 500 pages long
Shiki is buried in the cemetery of Tairyu-ji
a temple in the Tabata Section of Tokyo
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2013/09/28/books/book-reviews/biography-of-masaoka-shiki-excels-in-the-expanded-details/#.U7C8qKge4pQ
