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

Force of Gravity (tanka, 2001)

deceptively still,
far suns of night burn
in silence,
drawn away as I am
by force of gravity

DW Bender
unpublished tanka, May 8, 2001

Sorry, I've been busy with some other things, and have not been visiting my poetry blog for a little while...I do need to answer your kind comments, friends, readers. Soon.

A couple months ago, I discovered a wonderful artist/photographer, Donald Cecil, aka Don Cecil who posts many of his creations on Flickr. I am blown away and transported by the awesome wonder of his work, which call forth the language of dream, imagination, childhood... . I hope he will one day publish some of these in books. I can't begin to describe what kind of profound and stong feelings and yearnings (related to childhood and creativity) the images he creates bring up in me:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bullcecil/

Visit all of them, but especially see, these Sets:

Kid Years

New Story

Cancer Time

50 Years