Tuesday at Lunch Bunch the conversation centered on haiku. We had in front of us work of the poet Basho and a series of three different translations of each.

Of one haiku, the translation of R. H. Blyth:
It is deep autumn
My neighbor
How does he live, I wonder.

Same haiku, translated by Strych:
Autumns end
how does my
neighbor live?

And translated by Beilenson:
In my dark winter
lying ill, at last I ask
how fares my neighbor

We translate each others' words, even when we are speaking the same basic language. We translate glances and body language. We translate the natural world into words, as I have been doing here.

Today I am going to spend some hours in direct experience of the natural world, scurrying with the little mice and voles, tending the earth, the grasses to come. I'll be back in a few days.