夜桜やうらわかき月本郷に
Yozakura ya urawakaki tsuki hongō ni
Cherry blossoms at dusk.
A crescent moon
over the youthful Hongō.夜桜 (yozakura: cherry blossoms in the evening)
night + cherry blossom
や (ya: a grammatical separator that prepares readers for what’s about to follow, rather as “oh!” does)
うらわかき (urawakaki: very young)うら- (ura-: prefix meaning very)
わかき (wakaki: young)This is an old, literary form of 若い (wakai: young).
月 (tsuki: moon)
本郷 (Hongō: a Tokyo district famous for being a student quarter) main + village
Alberto has provided considerable information (and more beautiful photos) in a PDF. On the first page, he refers to the 季語 (kigo) of the haiku. The breakdown makes that word clearer:
季語 (kigo) season + word
Haiku are often about nature. And in traditional haiku, a particular word or phrase (the kigo) indicates the season associated with that particular haiku. Wikipedia has more information about kigo.
One more note about Alberto’s PDF: The first page shows the kanji for the name of the man who wrote the haiku: 石田波郷 (Ishida Hakyō). So his name includes the kanji we’ve been focusing on today! What are the odds?!
Finally, I am honored to introduce Alberto’s haiku mentor, Nakamura Sakuo of Tokyo. Sakuo-san is a retired chemist who has spent the last five years painting incredibly charming haiga (俳画: haiku + picture). As the breakdown suggests, haiga are illustrations of haiku. I urge you to check out his creations at the following links:
• His blog (with a photo of him)
• A website where he posts illustrated versions of his own haiku
• The magazine Haiga Online
Alberto and I have invited Sakuo-san to post comments on JPod (especially about haiku), so I hope we’ll be hearing from him in the future. ようこそ！ (Yōkoso! Welcome!)
One more thing about Sakuo-san: If you write his name in hiragana and in Western order, you get さくお なかむら. Delete the red parts, and what do you get? さくら (sakura: cherry trees, cherry blossoms)!
