My Left-handed Black Cat, Jan 2010

MY LEFT-HANDED BLACK CAT

BY

ATENE KAWASAKI

Haiku About My Friend After the Death of My Wife

Mr. Kawasaki is a journalist. He works for the Nagasaki Daily, an influential local newspaper in Nagasaki Prefecture. He is a member of its Editorial Team and also a renowned writer at the Culture Department of the paper. He has recently encountered the saddest thing in his life. His beloved wife has passed away. Left behind only with Noah, the black cat who has strayed mysteriously into his life and become his bosom friend, Mr. Kawasaki has been filling the void created by the bereavement with his haiku poems about the cat and many photographs of him. The result has recently been published in a charming anthology with the above title.

(The following are some examples of Mr. Kawasaki’s haiku on his cat-friend Noah.)

『左利きの黒猫 ―ノア 十七音のアルバム―』 かわさき あてね著、木耳社版

拾われて夜露を知らぬ猫となる

hiroware te yotsuyu wo shiranu neko to naru

rescued

the stray cat no longer knows

night dews

用を足す子猫おとなし秋の昼

yo wo tasu koneko otonashi aki no hiru

the kitten quietly

goes to the loo...

autumn afternoon

方言で猫と遊べり小春の日

Hogen de neko to asoberi koharu no hi

in local dialect

I play with the cat...

Indian summer

憂国忌

猫に無縁の

忌日なり

yukokuki

neko ni muen no

kijitsu nari

the anniversary date

of Yukio Mishima’s death...

nothing to do with my cat

木枯らしの中か子猫の父母は

kogarashi no naka ka koneko no chichi-haha wa

parents

of this kitten...are they exposed

to bitter winter wind?

初雪の便り猫にも告げておく

hatsu-yuki no tayori neko ni mo tsuge te oku

I’ve taken

the trouble of telling my cat

of the first snow

八階の猫に恋なし親もなし

hachi-kai no neko ni koi nashi oya mo nashi

the cat

living on my eighth floor

without love or parents

左利きの猫と選抜観戦す

hidari-kiki no neko to senbatsu kansen su

with the left-handed cat

I watch a baseball match