from Bashō in Lockdown by Andrew Fitzsimons
PN Review 256, November - December 2020
Andrew Fitzsimons’ latest collection, My Father the Dog is being published this month. Use the code AUGBOOKS15 at our website checkout for 15% off.
A morning glory
closing up in the daytime
the lock on my gate
asagao ya / hiru wa jō orosu / mon no kaki
*
To my brushwood door
fallen tea leaves for my tea
swept here by the storm
shiba no to ni / cha o konoha kaku / arashi kana
*
In my hermitage
a square of light on the floor
the window-shaped moon
waga yado wa / shikkakuna kage o / mado no tsuki
*
The east and the west
the melancholy all one
the autumnal wind
higashi nishi / awaresa hitotsu / aki no kaze
*
For today at least
let us all be the aged
The first winter rains
kyō bakari / hito mo toshi yore / hatsu shigure
*
The winter melons
Each and every one with change
written on the face
tōgan ya / tagai ni kawaru / kao no nari
*
The year-end bazaar
Couldn’t I get up and go
and buy some incense?
toshi no ichi / senkō kai ni / idebaya na
*
I’m drinking sake
incapable now of sleep
at night-time the snow
sake nomeba / itodo nerarene / yoru no yuki
*
Rise and shine rise and shine
I want to make you my friend
sleeping butterfly
okiyo okiyo / waga tomo ni sen / nuru kochō
*
My father mother
so very much I miss them
A kiji calling
chichi haha no / shikirini koishi / kiji no koe
*
My hair growing out
a blue pallor to my face
the long summer rains
kami haete / yōgan aoshi / satsuki ame
*
In my tiny hut
the mosquitos so tiny
a tiny mercy
waga yado wa / ka no chiisaki o / chisō kana
*
Day by livelong day
barley in the field reddens
and the skylark sings
hito hi hito hi / mugi akaramite / naku hibari
*
A morning glory
even one painted poorly
blossoms with feeling
asagao wa / heta no kaku sae / aware nari
*
Thin at the same time
somehow the chrysanthemum
in bud yet again
yase nagara / wari naki kiku no / tsubomi kana
*
Out there in the world
it’s time to harvest the rice
I’m in my thatched hut
yo no naka wa / ine karu koro ka / kusa no io
*
A banked charcoal fire
On the wall the silhouette
of my companion
uzumibi ya / kabe ni wa kyaku no / kagebōshi
*
Here on a roadway
where nobody else travels
The autumn evening
kono michi ya / yuku hito nashi ni / aki no kure
*
They give off the look
of a hundred years the leaves
strewn about the lawn
momotose no / keshiki o niwa no / ochiba kana
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This excerpt by Andrew Fitzsimons is taken from PN Review 256, November - December 2020.
Andrew Fitzsimons’ latest collection, My Father the Dog is being published this month. Use the code AUGBOOKS15 at our website checkout for 15% off.
More of Andrew’s poetry alongside other poetry, features, reviews and reports from across the back catalogue are also available in the archive to paying subscribers.
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Lovely.