2. Senryu - Japanese Satirical Verses

The book is so good and important I am devoting two posts to it.

Idealism is of all space, of the past and the future; realism is of this place and this present moment, the only really living thing. Senryu brings us back to here and now; haiku is that “something ever more about to be”. - R.H. Blyth

追ふ人にあかりを見する蛍かな　－　おえまる

The firefly

Gives light

To its pursuer.

--o0o--

一本のマッチに闇のたぢろきぬ　―　万年

At a single match,

The darkness

flinches.

--o0o--

自動車で見ればみじめな人通り　－　錦郎

Looking from the car

The people going by

Are a miserable sight.