Hattori Ransetsu

These are my modern English translations of poems by the Japanese samurai Hattori Ransetsu. I consider Ransetsu's haiku about a childless woman to be one of my most touching translations.

Hattori Ransetsu (1654-1707) was an Edo samurai who became a haikai/haiku poet under the guidance of the master Matsuo Basho. He must have been a quick study, because when Ransetsu was just 26 years old, Basho included his work in two anthologies. When Basho died, Ransetsu he took the tonsure and became a Buddhist monk.

R. H. Blyth considered Ransetsu to be Basho's most representative disciple.

A hallmark of Ransetsu’s poetry is his compassion for all living things.

The childless woman,
how tenderly she caresses
homeless dolls …
—Hattori Ransetsu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
umazume no hina kashizuku zo aware naru

Clinging
to the plum tree:
one blossom's worth of warmth.
—Hattori Ransetsu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

One leaf falls, enlightenment!
Another leaf falls,
swept away by the wind …
—Hattori Ransetsu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
hitoha chiri totsu hitoha chiru kaze no ue

This has been called Ransetsu’s “death poem.” In The Classic Tradition of Haiku, Faubion Bowers says in a footnote to this haiku: “Just as ‘blossom’, when not modified, means ‘cherry flower’ in haiku, ‘one leaf’ is code for ‘kiri’. Kiri … is the Pawlonia … The leaves drop throughout the year. They shrivel, turn yellow, and yield to gravity. Their falling symbolizes loneliness and connotes the past. The large purple flowers … are deeply associated with haiku because the three prongs hold 5, 7 and 5 buds … ‘Totsu’ is an exclamation supposedly uttered when a Zen student achieves enlightenment. The sound also imitates the dry crackle the pawlonia leaf makes as it scratches the ground upon falling.”

Illuminated by the harvest moon
smoke is caught creeping
across the water …
—Hattori Ransetsu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

A leaf falls,
then another leaf falls,
swept away by the wind …
—Hattori Ransetsu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

The childless woman
tenderly fondles
dolls for sale
—Hattori Ransetsu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

This night's moon
leaves all fields and mountains bald.
—Hattori Ransetsu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

(Ransetsu shaved his head when his mentor Matsuo Basho died.)

In implacable moonlight
hills and fields
everywhere
bald-white as eggs.
—Hattori Ransetsu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

High above the chanting pilgrims
wild geese soar.
—Hattori Ransetsu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

New Year’s Day!
Though the skies are cloudless,
sparrows still gossip.
—Hattori Ransetsu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Waking before dawn
the constellations
seem topsy-turvy.
—Hattori Ransetsu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Chain Reaction
by Hattori Ransetsu
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

A leaf
falls,
then another and another
and, alas, yet another
falls
…

Related Translation Pages:

Ancient Japanese Waka and Haiku
Ono no Komachi (circa 850 AD)
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)
Fukuda Chiyo-ni (1703-1775)
Yosa Buson (1716-1764)
Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828)