Editors’ Note: The renga is an older form of Japanese linked poetry than the renku. For the HSA definition of the renku, go to the HSA Web. site <https://www.hsa-haiku.org/archives/HSA_Definitions_2004.html>. For a scholarly, but clear, discussion of how the renku evolved from the renga, read the chapter “Distinctive Features of Linked Poetry” in Miner, E., Japanese Linked Poetry, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979, pp. 140-159. As can be seen in this section, both forms are practiced today.
Dream of New Year
A Kasen Renku by
Eiko Yachimoto (eiko), Japan
Ella Rutledge (Ella), Japan
1. |
on the road again
I dream of New Year rice cakes,
folded fern pillow |
(Basho) |
2. |
greeting at an unknown gate
familiar scent of pine boughs |
(Ella) |
3. |
explosive applause
for yokozuna wafting
from the radio |
(eiko) |
4. |
in a hardware store window
a bunch of red-handled brooms |
(Ella) |
5. |
the rising moon
mirrored in a mountain lake
untrodden, unmapped |
(eiko) |
6. |
through the chilly air, a leaf
came down onto the dark stone |
(Ella) |
7. |
hunting fall colors
Makioka sisters choose
their fine kimono |
(eiko) |
| 8. |
during a lull in the game
a man ponders his next move |
(Ella) |
| 9. |
before we were born
a crown-prince danced in the rain
winning his first love |
(eiko) |
| 10. |
the song no longer makes sense
now that you have gone away |
(Ella) |
| 11. |
in purple sunset
the wake of a battleship
graces the deep strait |
(eiko) |
| 12. |
an airbase runway repaired
old wounds left to fester |
(Ella) |
| 13. |
Was a ghost whistling?
I’d hear it walking barefoot
through sugarcane fields |
(eiko) |
14. |
rum cokes on the veranda
moonlight leaks through a roof hole |
(Ella) |
15. |
the gold pendulum
of the clock swings back and forth
a mouse heads for home |
(Ella) |
| 16. |
“let’s rest on the river bank.”
clouds drift from the east |
(eiko) |
| 17. |
fading into white
down the petal-scattered street
a tofu seller’s horn |
(Ella) |
| 18. |
warped faces appear, disappear
children keep blowing bubbles |
(eiko) |
| 19. |
mud flat at low tide
I pick up opalescent shells
remembering Mom |
(Ella) |
| 20. |
rosary of long shorelines
a jet-pilot squints his eyes |
(eiko) |
| 21. |
deep within the woods
an owl watches from the branch
of a withered tree |
(Ella) |
| 22. |
first snow won’t stop for two nights shoji moistened tenderly |
(eiko) |
| 23. |
soft glow on her lips
hearing footsteps on the path
she turns to meet him |
(Ella) |
| 24. |
tomorrow is the day for
Hester Prynne to face the court |
(eiko) |
| 25. |
your photograph still
hangs in the unused bedroom
its colors bleeding |
(Ella) |
| 26. |
hexagonal quartz crystals
cushioned by thick cotton pads |
(eiko) |
| 27. |
a perfect circle
formed after many false starts
containing nothing |
(Ella) |
| 28. |
the harvest moon floating high
to lure out an old lobster |
(eiko) |
| 29. |
tourists now depart
memories of sunlight lost
in fog behind them |
(Ella) |
| 30. |
a long entwined vine of grape
to which I cling like a madman |
(eiko) |
| 31. |
no longer does smoke
from household fires twist upward
to infinity |
(Ella) |
| 32. |
schoolgirls chant in chorus
at Fudo-do in Kinkaku |
(Ella) |
| 33. |
carrying up and down
corridors of umber gloss
200 futon |
(eiko) |
| 34. |
slowly from its chrysalis
emerges a butterfly |
(Ella) |
| 35. |
a young shadow moves
on the cleanest concrete wall
to the blossom breeze |
(eiko) |
| 36. |
the seeds have all been planted
a farmer drinks from the well |
(Ella) |
Notes
Stanza 3. yokozuna: the highest ranking sumo wrestler.
Stanza 7. Makioka sisters: The English title of Sasameyuki, a Japanese novel written by Junichiro Tanizaki.
Stanza 22. shoji: Japanese sliding windows/doors with rice paper.
Stanza 32. Fudo do in Kinkaku: A hall in the temple often called Golden Pavillion, a famous destination in Kyoto, often of overnight school excursions.
