Suzuki Murio () 1919–2004

Suzuki Murio is one of the most famous gendai (modern) haiku poets. He sometimes wrote muki haiku (haiku without a season word). Born in Osaka in 1919, he became a professor and taught at Osaka University of Arts in the Literary Arts Department. He studied haiku with Sait Sanki (who also wrote a haiku about orphans playing baseball). Murio became the leader of the Kay(Bright Blossoms) haiku group in 1971. He received a number of gendai haiku awards, but also was given a Dakotsu Award for his haiku.

Here is one of his modern-style haiku: ihin ari iwanamibunko “Abe ichizoku.” In translation it is: “Left by the deceased—/ only a paperback copy of/ The Family Abe.” (The Family Abe is a famous novel by Ogai Mori.)

Murio wrote the “orphans playing baseball” haiku when he was around the age of thirty, so the orphans in the poem probably lost their parents during World War II. It is from his volume Tanima no Hata (A Flag in the Valley), published in 1955. The “outfielder” haiku originally appeared in his A kury (Apollyon, or Angel of Hell), which came out in 1985.

Murio passed away in December 2004.

My legs are chilly

I stand watching the orphans

play baseball

ashi hiete tachite miteishi koji no yakyu

 

 

Over

the outfielder’s loneliness—

the summer moon

gaiyashu no kodoku ni kakari natsu no tsuki