In 1955, born as Masayuki Inui, in Aioi, Hyogo Prefecture,
Japan. He saw his first haiku selected by Tohta Kaneko in a monthly
when he was fourteen. In 1975 met Avant-garde haiku poets Tohta Kaneko
and Shigenobu Takayanagi in Tokyo. Studied French Literature and
Culture at Tokyo University where he received an M.A. in Comparative
Literature and Culture in 1981. In 1991 appointed Professor at Meiji
University where he continues to teach. In the same year won the
38th Modern Haiku Association Prize. From 1996 to 1998 was a guest
research fellow at Paris 7th University. In 1998 with Sayumi Kamakura,
he founded international haiku magazine Ginyu (Troubadour),
became its Editor-in-Chief. Secretary General and panelist of the
1st International Contemporary Haiku Symposium held in Tokyo, 1999.
In 2000 co-founded the World Haiku Association with Jim Kacian and
Dimitar Anakiev. Also he serves as Director of the Modern Haiku Association
(Japan). Now he lives in Fujimi City near Tokyo. Published his 8
Haiku Collections including The Diary of Everyday Hunting (1983), Rhythm
in the Vacuum (1986), The Fugue of Gods (1990), Opera
in the Human Body (1990), Earth Pilgrimage (1998). English-language
edition: A Future Waterfall (1999). Also edited Guide to
21st Century Haiku (1997), Multilingual Haiku Troubadours
2000 (2000) and Transparent Current (2000). Published
many texts on haiku: Dictionary of Keywords for Contemporary
Haiku (1990), Contemporary Haiku Manual (1996), Haiku
is Our Friend (1997), etc.
My Pilgrimage Ban’ya
Natsuishi
English translations by Ban’ya Natsuishi & James
Shea
Your breath
still like mother’s milk—
Indian rose
A song sprung out
from the lotus pond
and followed me
This fruit
is a reptile—
wind from Java
For the Balinese
who don’t know the constellations—
the stars multiply
An
infant’s
tomb
in Carthage—
rain on the sea
Here vanishes
the river—
a song of cow and cock
Father and son
riding a donkey—
cliff of red soil
Extra-thick clouds
in the sky over the Yangtze—
I’m a workaholic
In
Istanbul’s
Little New York—
a Japanese
In the archaeological zone:
dandelions-moss-rumors
Into the Colosseum
escapes a man
with a secret in his right hand
In Indian Summer
on a large rock—
rest woods and a church
From the reed marsh
New York appears
like an old UFO
Still-life is
food for our life—
rain in Paris
Staying in Paris:
my birthday commemorated by
a falling light bulb
Toward the vague
Mediterranean Sea—
flames of the mimosa
Fog settles
on every mountain ridge
in Corsica
A rosy cloud
shaped like a stick—
a child in Calais
Stars
swaying—
within the house of a fountain
a Celtic lyre
On the cliff
a spring dried up—
covered with heath
Blackberries—
a man remains
and a man returns home
For ten-thousand years,
white bones dreaming
inside a cave
A broad blaze of sunlight
takes the ocean liner
and leaves suddenly
A single steppingstone
for the spirit—
the sound of waves
In 1955, born as Masayuki Inui, in Aioi, Hyogo Prefecture,
Japan. He saw his first haiku selected by Tohta Kaneko in a monthly
when he was fourteen. In 1975 met Avant-garde haiku poets Tohta Kaneko
and Shigenobu Takayanagi in Tokyo. Studied French Literature and
Culture at Tokyo University where he received an M.A. in Comparative
Literature and Culture in 1981. In 1991 appointed Professor at Meiji
University where he continues to teach. In the same year won the
38th Modern Haiku Association Prize. From 1996 to 1998 was a guest
research fellow at Paris 7th University. In 1998 with Sayumi Kamakura,
he founded international haiku magazine Ginyu (Troubadour),
became its Editor-in-Chief. Secretary General and panelist of the
1st International Contemporary Haiku Symposium held in Tokyo, 1999.
In 2000 co-founded the World Haiku Association with Jim Kacian and
Dimitar Anakiev. Also he serves as Director of the Modern Haiku Association
(Japan). Now he lives in Fujimi City near Tokyo. Published his 8
Haiku Collections including The Diary of Everyday Hunting (1983), Rhythm
in the Vacuum (1986), The Fugue of Gods (1990), Opera
in the Human Body (1990), Earth Pilgrimage (1998). English-language
edition: A Future Waterfall (1999). Also edited Guide to
21st Century Haiku (1997), Multilingual Haiku Troubadours
2000 (2000) and Transparent Current (2000). Published
many texts on haiku: Dictionary of Keywords for Contemporary
Haiku (1990), Contemporary Haiku Manual (1996), Haiku
is Our Friend (1997), etc.