Kasen: Oh Porcelain Pillow



Fugyo presented three stanzas for a kasen hokku on 10 July 2005.

petals of magnolia
I accidentally stepped on them
a bit feverish (fugyo)

jangling a bunch of keys
I walked into the dark night
of the rainy season (f)

oh porcelain pillow
black is the hair, darkness of a sea
of three thousand fathoms 　　 (f)

Among the three stanzas above, Mandala picked up

oh porcelain pillow
black is the hair, darkness of a sea
of three thousand fathoms

as the hokku for the kasen “oh porcelain pillow,” while developing the other two into the mitsumono, "three pieces.”

　　　　　*

petals of magnolia
I accidentally stepped on them
a bit feverish (fugyo)

　clouds go in white
　early summer floats　　(mandala)

from east to west
roving with a ger tent
in a steppe (m)

　　　　　*

jangling a bunch of keys
I walked into the dark night
of the rainy season (fugyo)
　
　a bucket doesn’t touch in June
　the water of a draw well (mandala)

harvesting rice
as they plant seedlings
in the neighboring field (m)

　


kasen oh porcelain pillow

10 July -10 October, 2005
by Fugyo and Mandala

oh porcelain pillow
black is the hair, darkness of a sea
of three thousand fathoms 　　 (fugyo)

　an afternoon of water lilies
　the Trieb in white 　　(mandala)

loading and trailing
a bicycle cart
with rare books, lucky finds 　　(f)

　along the cypress road
　riding a donkey behind my master 　　　(m)

you puff on your cigarillo
then the moon
seems disturbed 　　 (f)

　scattered clouds move fast
　autumn’s stormiest period 　　 (m)

making cuts in a pumpkin
I wonder if the boy next door
is Jack O Lantern himself 　　 (m)

　the inner tatami room
　is left alone in a mess 　　 (f)

Three Gorges
homes, sweet homes
are submerged under water 　　 (m)

　every cough makes me
　see three, four stars 　　 (f)

at dawn
she wore an explosive belt
last time I saw her 　　 (m)

　leaving unfinished
　half of ‘Cup Noodles’　　 (f)

the moon freezes up
at Kenko’s teabowl
of the chipped rim　　　　　　　　　（m）

　what you call le japonisme
　is a tortoise inhabiting an island （f）

for nineteen years
nothing but the billows of Oki
as far as the eye could see　　　（m）

　how thick and round
　the guy’s trapezius muscles　　　（f）

beneath the blossom stands
my daughter side by side
with a lad, jacaranda!　　　　（m）

　fixing my glare on the balloon
　till it was a mere dot　　　(f)

kept in by a spring drizzle
where it is
a circus troupe　　　　(f)

　their youthhood has gone
　in battlefields　　（m）

for a sequence
oriented to a minimum
and a maximum　　（f）

　so elusive is the wind
　so boundless is the land　　 (m)

a nun dreams a dream
embracing
a thick-bodied samisen　　(f)

　a noble scion who felt a lute heavy
　she’s in love with him　　(m)
　　　
clumsy left-hand writing
how a childish
is that doctorate holder　　(f)

　cordially asking a computer
　for the conclusion (m)

tens of thousand yuan income households
now they’re old timers and are no longer
much to look at (f)

　get out of the way cyclists
　for a Mercedes-Benz (m)

getting soaked
in the pale moonlight
the Inu-Kubo　　　(f)
　　(Inu-Kubo, the nickname of the 5th Tokugawa Shogun Tsunayoshi)

　an eulalia is arranged
　in a vacant tea hut　　(m)

everybody praises up
but all turn down
chayotes (f)

　they’ll be surfeited after a while
　with a kiritampo pot (m)
　(kiritampo: mashed rice pressed on a cedar skewer and toasted)

operating a power shovel
a guy speaks plain
in his provincial accent (f)

　a view from an open-air onsen
　mountains of my birthplace (m)

an image fixed and called up
in the memory of a cryboy
a storm of falling cherry blossoms (f)

　how mild is a spring
　in a miniature garden (m)