Instead of writing this week’s haiku first in Japanese, I started writing it in English. This was written on a postcard I sent to a poet somewhere in the Southern United States.
I have another English version of the haiku based on the Japanese interpretation of the original English version. The translation of “tereru ki” was hard for me because what I wanted to convert was all of the possible definitions of “ki” including mind, heart, spirit, feelings, and nature. I did my best. The word for “brown eyes” is the same as “rascal” and “joker” in Japanese.
Tereru Ki Chame, or the Bashful Brown-Eyed Rascal
I think about you,
Your timid heart and brown eyes
Just gazing at mine
存じてよ
照り返す茶目
照る気に
＊＊＊
Zonjite yo
Terikaesu chame
Tereru ki ni
＊＊＊
I feel a brown-eyed
rascal’s gaze reflecting back
In bashful spirit
It’s not as romantic as the first, the second English version still works.
＊＊＊
Dearest Reverie 