Unable to Sleep

Leaf 130 – Reflections

 

A famous haiku about sparrows by Kobayashi Issa (see below)

Sometimes when I write haiku, I kind of half-think them simultaneously in both Japanese and English. It can be a curiously head-muddling process. In this particular instance, the English version beat the Japanese one to the finish line. And so, this is really another of my attempts at translating a free-form haiku written in English back into proper 5-7-5 Japanese. As always, with my beginner’s Japanese, I’m not sure how effective it is, or if it works properly …

 

 

Unable to sleep –

a chorus of sparrows

start their day.

 

Or:

 

夜が明ける外で雀を合唱寝ない

よがあける | そとで すずめを | がっしょうねない

Yogaakeru | soto de suzume o | gasshō nenai

Dawn breaks | outside the sparrows | singing together I can't sleep

Seiko - Sparrow and Red Flower (1895)

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Photograph (top) & translation (below) credit: Project Haiku

我と来て　あそべや　親のない雀

ware to kite asobeya oya no nai suzume

Come to me / and let’s play / little orphan sparrow

- Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828)