three haiku from 2005 with Japanese translations

two butterflies
stop and go, but mostly
keep on going

DWB
Haiku
August 20, 2005

つがい蝶　ならびまろびの　飛翔かな
tsugai chou / narabi marobi no / hishou kana

Translation to Japanese, Ken Saito

tsugai : a pair of, a brace of
narabi (narannde) : to go (in flight) in line/tandem, or, side by side
marobi (maronnde) : (rather old fashioned saying meaning )
to stagger/totter, or to drop-off (from flight)
hishou : flight

"a couple of butterflies flying, (sometimes/mostly) in smooth and side by side flight, (sometimes) troubled flight"

unenlightened, as yet—
how thunderbolts follow
one another

DW Bender
Haiku, 2005

悟るなし　　雷神あまた　　お在せども
satoru nashi / raijin amata / owase domo

Translation to Japanese, Ken Saito
(alludes to the haiku by master, Matsuo Basho [1644-1694]:

"How admirable!
to see lightning and not think
life is fleeting.")

almost before
it starts, it stops.
afternoon rain

DW Bender
Haiku, 2005

午後の雨　　降りだす間なく　　降り止めり
gogo no ame / furidasu manaku / furi yameri

Translation to Japanese, Ken Saito

Tanka, 2003: untitled

click to view larger image
DW Bender
tanka, haiga, 2003

Two Untitled Tanka (One collaborative)

1.
seeing again
the beauty of tear drops
against dew drops /st
the mosses, catching them,
reveal a universe /db

untitled tanka
Susumu Takiguchi, UK: /st
DW Bender, USA: /db
January 4-5, 2007

2.
without announcement
a spell of winter rain falls
into loneliness...
how my feet keep on slipping
over clouds dropped by the sky

DW Bender
Janauary 18, 2007
untitled tanka

winter rain...2008

winter rain...
again the sound of water
changes shape

DW Bender
Haiku, 2008

*first written as "summer rain..." for a photo, but this is winter, and we just had a winter rain last week. In other areas than Florida, the sound of water changes shape even more drastically, variably and noticeably.

A older "sound" tanka from 2001:

How could I help it?
escaping with the spring moon
on this quilted night...
somewhere a slow, shifting sound
and ink melts, slips over stone.

DW Bender
Tanka, February 12, 2001