Shige Hara
Shige (yoshi) Hara ia a professor of English at Dokkyo University, Japan, and has been translating American poetry into Japanese, of which his most recent work is “Danger on Peaks” by Gary Snyder (2007). He is currently a visiting scholar at UC Davis (April 2007 -March 2008), and writing a book on West Coast Poetry. One of the chapters will be called “Poets in the High Sierras”.
High Sierra Haiku
by Shige Hara
At the Base camp
Under the old pine tree
Gary cross-legged, chanting sutras–
The sun is still on the way
At the Headwater of the Rock Creek
Cast an elk-hair caddis to a golden
cruising along the shore of Sky Blue
Lake
caught in the net of a watershed, I’m jumping
From the Upper Soldier Lake
Looking down Mt. Fuji
telling the story of glacier
we are three happy snails
New Army Pass
You go, I go
up the trail, down the trail,
hidden in the mountain
On Pacific Crest Trail
On the top of foxtail
squats a raven–
summer breeze below
(Summer of 2007)