寒庭に・在る石更に・省くべし

かんていに・あるいしさらに・はぶくべし

In the cold garden, they really should have left out more of the stones!

山口誓子, 1962

Incidentally, each of these haiku in The Essence of Modern Haiku includes some comments from the poet and some vocabulary explanations.  I thought those pertaining to this poem were particularly interesting.

The stone garden of the Ryoan-ji, in Kyoto.  In the cold garden, 15 stones are arranged in groups of  7, 5, and 3.  Fifteen is the smallest number possible, but it seems to me, accustomed to working in the short poetic form of the haiku, that more stones should have been left out.

Vocabulary:

更に: “more, again.”

省く = “exclude, omit, eliminate”, and べし is a classical form implying “ought to, should”, so 省くべし literally means “ought to eliminate”.  The intended meaning, though, is that more stones “could have been left out”, rather than that they should now be eliminated.

高きより・雪降り松に・沿ひ下る

たかいより・ゆきふりまつに・そいくだる

From high in the sky, the snow making its way down following the pine.

山口誓子, 1942

街道に・障子を閉めて・紙一重

かいどうに・しょうじをしめて・かみひとえ

Along the high road, sliding doors closed to the world, but one page away.

山口誓子, 1966

秋の蝶・生きている黄は・最も黄

あきのちょう・いきているきは・もっともき

The living yellow of the autumn butterfly – yellow above all!

山口誓子, 1972

瓜貰う・太陽の熱・さめざるを

うりもらう・たいようのねつ・さめざるを

Given a melon with all the heat of the sun still warm within it.

山口誓子, 1950

From now on (when I remember) on Fridays I’ll be posting a selected haiku of Yamaguchi Seishi (山口誓子).  These are taken from The Essence of Modern Haiku.  楽しみに!

星よりも・明蛍火の・生ける火は

ほしよりも・めいほたるびの・いけるひは

The living fire of a firefly glowing brighter than a star

(1972)