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This poem is taken from PN Review 256, Volume 47 Number 2, November - December 2020.

from Bashō in Lockdown Andrew Fitzsimons
A morning glory
       closing up in the daytime
              the lock on my gate
asagao ya / hiru wa jō orosu / mon no kaki

*

To my brushwood door
       fallen tea leaves for my tea
              swept here by the storm

shiba no to ni / cha o konoha kaku / arashi kana

*

In my hermitage
       a square of light on the floor
              the window-shaped moon

waga yado wa / shikkakuna kage o / mado no tsuki

*

The east and the west
      the melancholy all one
              the autumnal wind

higashi nishi / awaresa hitotsu / aki no kaze

*

For today at least
       let us all be the aged
              The first winter rains

kyō bakari / hito mo toshi yore / hatsu shigure

*

The winter melons
       Each and every one with change
              written on the face

tōgan ya / tagai ni kawaru / kao no nari

*

The year-end bazaar
       Couldn’t I get up and go
              and buy some incense?

toshi no ichi / senkō kai ni / idebaya na

*

I’m drinking sake
       incapable now of sleep
              at night-time the snow

sake nomeba / itodo nerarene / yoru no yuki

*

Rise and shine rise and shine
       I want to make you my friend
              sleeping butterfly

okiyo okiyo / waga tomo ni sen / nuru kochō

*

My father mother
       so very much I miss them
              A kiji calling

chichi haha no / shikirini koishi / kiji no koe

*

My hair growing out
       a blue pallor to my face
              the long summer rains

kami haete / yōgan aoshi / satsuki ame

*

In my tiny hut
       the mosquitos so tiny
              a tiny mercy

waga yado wa / ka no chiisaki o / chisō kana

*

Day by livelong day
       barley in the field reddens
              and the skylark sings

hito hi hito hi / mugi akaramite / naku hibari

*

A morning glory
       even one painted poorly
              blossoms with feeling

asagao wa / heta no kaku sae / aware nari

*

Thin at the same time
       somehow the chrysanthemum
              in bud yet again

yase nagara / wari naki kiku no / tsubomi kana

*

Out there in the world
       it’s time to harvest the rice
              I’m in my thatched hut

yo no naka wa / ine karu koro ka / kusa no io

*

A banked charcoal fire
       On the wall the silhouette
              of my companion

uzumibi ya / kabe ni wa kyaku no / kagebōshi

*

Here on a roadway
       where nobody else travels
              The autumn evening

kono michi ya / yuku hito nashi ni / aki no kure

*

They give off the look
       of a hundred years the leaves
              strewn about the lawn

momotose no / keshiki o niwa no / ochiba kana

This poem is taken from PN Review 256, Volume 47 Number 2, November - December 2020.



Readers are asked to send a note of any misprints or mistakes that they spot in this poem to editor@pnreview.co.uk
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