Japanese garden
the rake leaning against
the ginkgo
Ignatius Fay
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
日本庭園
一把耙子倚靠
在銀杏樹旁
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
日本庭园
一把耙子倚靠
在银杏树旁
Bio Sketch
Ignatius
Fay is a retired invertebrate paleontologist. His poems have appeared
in many of the most respected online and print journals, including The Heron’s Nest, Modern Haiku, Ars Poetica, Gusts, Chrysanthemum and Eucalypt. Books: Breccia (2012), a collaboration with fellow haiku poet, Irene Golas; Points In Between (2011), an anecdotal history of his first 23 years. He is the new editor of the Haiku Society of America Bulletin. Ignatius resides in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
Ginkgo, regarded as a misspelling of the Japanese gin kyo ("silver apricot")and well-liked by the Japanese people, effectively provides a scent link (in Basho's sense of the phrase) to L1, "Japanese garden."
ReplyDeleteAnd this understated haiku reads more like a mood poem.
Note: "Extreme examples of the ginkgo's tenacity may be seen in Hiroshima, Japan, where six trees growing between 1–2 km from the 1945 atom bomb explosion were among the few living things in the area to survive the blast. Although almost all other plants (and animals) in the area were killed, the ginkgos, though charred, survived and were soon healthy again, among other hibakujumoku. The six trees are still alive: they are marked with signs at Housenbou temple -- excerpted from the Wikipedia entry, "Ginkgo"