A Platter of Persimmons

At one of the Yuki Teikei gatherings (I think it might have been a renku party.)

someone (I think it might have been Ann Bendixen)

brought a platter of persimmons, striking in their vividness.

So I have been looking tonight for some of the famous haiku by Shiki

about persimmons. This is from the World Haiku Review, Summer, 2013,

and gives us two English versions of the same haiku.

Maegaki (foreword) says: "Resting at a tea house of Horyuji Temple".

Kaki=persimmon/ kueba=as I eat/ kane=bell/ naru=rings/ nari=an adverb/ Horyuji=Horyuji Temple

as I eat a persimmon

the bell starts ringing

at Horyuji Temple 

Shiki

(version by Susumu Takiguchi)

I bite into a persimmon

and a bell resounds –

Horyuji 

Shiki

(tr. by Janine Beichman)