Film | Icebox

9 Feb. 2023 – Hailstone’s Hibikiai Forum English Haiku Poems seminar in Kyoto had a special focus on Ukraine. After the month’s Tensaku (Haiku Correction) Corner was over, a few of those present at the round table helped Tito read his compilation of Ukrainian War-themed haiku by members of the Circle. Evacuee Anna Shershnova from Kyiv, currently researching haiku at Kyoto Univ. of Advanced Science, then presented on both pre- and post-Invasion Ukrainian Haiku. It was very heartening to see Anna so animated in analysis of her countrymen’s verse, which she read in their original Ukrainian or Russian with her own translations into English, and to find how much good karma she has generated after only a few months in Japan. Both before and after our meet she was able to meet with a number of other Japanese or Japan-based poets and to swap enthusiasm for the wonderful short-form verse that is haiku. We hope to continue to welcome Anna whenever she can find a baby-sitter! She also showed us two haiku-style short videos made by her husband, whom she is hoping will be able to join her in Japan when circumstances allow. Presents were given and for the occasion Keiko Yurugi had even arranged a bouquet of yellow and blue flowers, Ukraine’s national colours.

There follows a short selection of the haiku featured in the reading (R) and in the presentation (P) on Ukraine.

(R)

Spring sunset —
they’ve left Ukraine
but their shadows
stay behind (Mizuho Shibuya)

Sleet is falling
in a devastated land —
mangled teddy bear (Ayako Kurokawa)

An uprush of hope:
a tractor towing a tank!

Its front wall blasted —
the bright yellow kitchen offers
a bowl of apples

Imagining peace —
singing in the candle-lit dark (Ursula Maierl)

(P)

Sounds of shots
riddling the spaces
between words

Crossing an empty street
hiding from the sky

Baptised by darkness —
childhood town’s lights
hit by missiles (Sergiy Kurbatov)

Leaving for a bomb shelter
habitually in the corridor
I try to kill a moth!