Niji Fuyuno: Lightness and Grace

Niji Fuyuno passed away in February 2002.

Onshitsu ni hairô to suru suna no oto
	Dans la serre des bruits de sable vont essayer d'entrer
	Into the greenhouse the sound of sand is trying to penetrate

Araumi ya nawatobi no naka garandô
	Mer agitée l'espace dans le cercle de la corde à sauter est entièrement vide
	Rough sea the space within the circle of the jump rope is entirely empty

Haha no te ni Hoshi sobakasu no Nashi ochi tsuku
	La poire tachetée Perd ses taches, une à une, Dans la main de ma mère!
	The spotted pear loses its spots, one by one in my mother's hand!

Her writing is light, like a feather in the wind. She speaks to us in a very simple and bare style of her everyday life, just lightly brushing things. She tells us, with an attentive glance, a thousand details, a thousand instants that make life so important, the emotions of the instant, all these little perceptions of the world. I know she liked Gaston Bachelard's The The Poetics of Space, and daydreaming, that descends into our private emotions.

We didn't meet, but she always wrote some kind words on Ryu Yotsuya's letters. Some words of her small and very fine writing, light and marvelously thoughtful. Light... Niji would have been so.

Ryôte kara hotaru no umi e katamukeru
	Avec mes mains j'inclinais une corbeille aérienne vers la mer des lucioles
	With my hands I tilt an airy basket towards the firefly sea

Shiro-kujaku asa me ga sameru toki no netsu
	Paon blanc fièvre quand je me réveille au matin
	White peacock fever when I wake up in the morning

The Grace is the feeling I retain when I read her haiku, perhaps because of the choice of images and situations, and then of the glance. Something unaffectedly flows in her writing. A very strong impression of beauty, of serenity, even in situations where one can feel a dramatic tension.

Shiraume ya toshokan ni kizetsu shite iru
	Ah, fleur blanche de prunier! on s'évanouit dans la bibliothèqu
	Ah, white plum flower! one passes out in the library

Toshi utsuru uo no sebone no sen no ue
	Passage à la nouvelle année sur l'épine dorsale du poisson sur ses lignes parallèles de petits os bien ordonnés
	Passage to the new year on the spine of fish on its parallel lines of small bones well-ordered

Ryu and Niji (Junko Yotsuya) were a very close couple. In 1987, they founded the literary magazine and after that the internet site Mushimegane (magnifying glass) dedicated to haiku. Published in Japanese, English, and French, it is one of the rare Japanese sites open to the international community. Niji also published tanka and tales—translations from old Japanese tales, but also tales of her own. She also wrote a haiku collection Yuki Yohô (Snow Forecast; Chuseki-sha, 1988).

Niji Fuyuno passed away this February 11th, 2002.

Niji Fuyuno — rainbow in a winter field

pluie froide —
ce matin je regarde l'éventail
fermé

cold rain —
this morning I watch the fan
closed