A loosely translated winter hokku by Yasui:
In the whiteness
Not one thing moves;
The frosty night.
It calls to mind two other winter hokku we have already seen; this one by Chiyo-ni —
In field and hill
Not one thing moves;
The snowy morning.
And this by Bashō:
Winter bleakness;
In a one-color world
The sound of the wind.
David
A winter hokku by Kaen:
How lonely —
The sound of rain pattering
On fallen leaves.
Here is a winter verse by Rimei, which I re-translated from an old book of Japanese hokku printed by the Oxford University Press in 1911:
Snow falling
On the pines where they sleep —
The crows.
David
Here is a rather loose rendering of a verse by the Tang Dynasty Chinese poet Bai Juyi:
NIGHT SNOW
Awakened by the chill of quilt and pillow,
I find the window has turned bright.
Late in the night I know the snow is deep
As now and then I hear the bamboos break.
HOKKU 