Haiku – Mexican Poetry

Jose Juan Tablada ( 1871- 1945)

A poet, art critic and journalist, Tablada was one of the most fertile and questioning minds of his generation. A forerunner of modern poetry, he introduced the haiku into the Spanish language.
– From Mexican Poetry An Anthology
Compiled by Octavio Paz
Translated by Samuel Beckett

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Haiku of a Day

Tender willow,
almost gold, almost amber,
almost light…..
– – – – –
The garden is thick with dry leaves;
on the trees I never saw
so many green, in spring…
– – – – – – –
Restore to the bare bough,
nocturnal butterfly,
the dry leaves of your wings!
– – – – – – – – –
The brilliant moon
Working through it’s web
Keeps the spider awake.
– – – – – – –
Royal peacock, slowly fulgurant,
through the democratic barnyard
you pass like a procession….
– – – – – – – –
The bat, in the night,
essays the swallow’s flight
so as to fly by day…
– – – – – – – –
The nightingale beneath
the awe of heaven raves
its psalm to the sole star.
– – – – – – – –
Sea the black night
the cloud a shell,
the moon a pearl.
—_——————–_—
Haiku of the flowerpot

The dragon-fly strives patiently
to fasten its transparent cross
to the bare and trembling bough.
.. .. .. .. .. .. ..
Ants on inert cricket crawling.
Memory
of Gulliver in Lilliput.
.. .. .. .. .. .. ..
Mingled, in the quiet evening,
chimes of angelus and bats
and swallows fly.
.. .. .. .. .. ..
Red cold
guffaw of summer,
slice
of watermelon!
– Jose Juan Tablada ( 1871- 1945)