Maple Viewing Fest & haiku we shared

by aleks
(Click on the pics to see them larger)

You really ought to bring your butt to the Japanese Garden and see it for yourself! Right now! We have about 100+ maples located in SJG and they are presently all outperforming themselves: crimson, yellow, orange and all the shades in between. The Garden's  PTB decided that it's OK to keep the names of the maples in the public view for a while, when they turn colors (very un-Japanese to label anything, if you ask experts), so you can actually find out which one is Yatsubusa (Japanese Dwarf Leaf Maple), Shishigashira (Lion's Mane Maple), red-leafed Omato, delicate-colored  Japanese Full Moon Maple or deeply incised Koto Noito maple.  Happy hunting for them!

SJG • 10/16/11, photo by Tony

 Kobayashi Issa 1808
.秋風に御任せ申す浮藻哉
aki kaze ni o-makase mô[su] ukimo kana

trusting its fate
to the autumn wind...
duckweed

Translation by David Lanoue http://haikuguy.com/issa/

SJG • 10/16/11, photo by Tony

Kobayashi Issa  1819

.名月や五十七年旅の秋


meigetsu ya go jû nana nen tabi no aki

harvest moon-


fifty seven years

of traveling autumns

Translation by David Lanoue http://haikuguy.com/issa/

SJG • 10/16/11, photo by Tony

Kobayashi Issa  1814

.世の中や祈らぬ野分きっと吹


yo [no] naka ya inoranu nowaki kitto fuku

in this world


unprayed-for autumn gales


surely blow

Translation by David Lanoue http://haikuguy.com/issa/

SJG • 10/16/11, photo by Tony

 Kobayashi Issa   1811

.なかなかに人と生れて秋の暮

naka-naka ni hito to umarete aki no kure

quite remarkable

being born human...


autumn dusk

Translation by David Lanoue http://haikuguy.com/issa/

SJG • 10/16/11, photo by Tony

Kobayashi Issa  1807

地蔵さへとしよるやうに木の葉哉

jizô sae toshiyoru yô ni ko[no]ha kana

even holy Jizo


is looking older...

fallen leaves

Jizô is the beloved guardian deity of children.

Translation by David Lanoue http://haikuguy.com/issa/