Maria Steyn, Norman Darlington and Moira Richards

A junicho renku in English and Afrikaans
Both versions by the authors

 

The Baker's Courtyard

shortening days
the baker's courtyard
alive with sparrows

so refreshing,
a new coolness in the air

keep out!
lipsticked in puce
on her teenager's door

one trail of footprints
at ebb tide

this bitter sea
has washed away my castles
in the sand

biofuels suck our food
into your northern cars

blue wildebeest
stir restlessly
under the July moon

Sleeping Beauty starts
to smell a little off

his feminist
deconstruction
of her poetry

how trivial all that seems
when spring arrives!

a picnic basket
amidst field upon field
of daisies

every star the chance
of a dream to come true

Die Bakker se Binneplaas

korter dae —
die bakker se binneplaas
wemel van mossies

so vervrissend
'n nuwe koelte in die lug

los my uit!
in bloedrooi lipstiffie
op haar tiener se deur

een ry voetspore
teen laaggety

hierdie bitter see
het al my sandkastele
weggespoel

bio-brandstof suig ons kos
na julle motors in die Noorde

blouwildebeeste
rusteloos
in winter maanlig

Die Slapende Skone
begin 'n bietjie af ruik

sy feministiese
dekonstruksie
van haar poësie

dit alles, so onbenullig
wanneer die lente kom!

'n piekniekmandjie
omring deur velde
namaqua-daisies

elke ster die kans
vir 'n droom om waar te word

 

Participants:
Maria Steyn: verses 1, 4, 7, 11
Norman Darlington: verses 2, 5, 8, 10
Moira Richards: verses 3, 6, 9, 12

English version first published in moonset: Literary Newspaper, USA, Autumn/Winter 2008, Edition 4 Number 2.
Afrikaans version first published in Vuursteen: Tijdschrift voor haiku, senryu en tanka, Netherlands, Winter 2008, Jaargang 28 nummer 4.

 

Moira Richards lives in South Africa and hangs out here www.darlingtonrichards.com and here www.redroom.com/author/moira-richards.

Maria Steyn lives in Johannesburg, South Africa. She holds a BA Honours degree in Philosophy, but followed a career in language teaching which took her to Soweto in the mid-eighties, and thereafter to various private schools. Her tanka and haiku have been published in numerous international journals and anthologies.

Co-founder of Darlington Richards Press and co-editor of Journal of Renga & Renku (both with Moira Richards), Norman Darlington lives on a hill in rural Ireland, raising vegetables, chickens and children. He’s been enchanted with haikai since first reading Hiroaki Satō’s 100 Frogs more than 30 years ago. Having been involved in numerous intercultural renku exchanges, he is convinced of the overarching good which collaborative linked verse can bring. Some of his published poetry can be found at Xaiku.com.