Book of the Week – Cricket Song: A Selection of Haiku by Ludmila Balabanova
The haiku in this book were selected by Gabriel Rosenstock. Originally written in Bulgarian, this trilingual presentation has English, Irish and Scots versions. An excerpt from Ludmila’s Poet Profile in the Haiku Registry – Born: in Novi Pazar, Bulgaria | Resides: Sofia, Bulgaria. Lecturer of Computer Engineering, writer of poetry, haiku and essays, Ph.D. dissertation titled “The Power of the Unsaid in the Poetic Text and its Ultimate Expression in Haiku.” Publications of poems, haiku, haibun and papers in Bulgaria and abroad, including in Frogpond, Modern Haiku, Chrysanthemum, Whirligig, Simply Haiku, Magnapoets, and others.
childhood –
my father teaching me
the constellations
open window
a tear is about to jump
from the top floor
the air between us
trembling . . .
dinner by candlelight
we share the moon –
the light part for you
the dark for me
You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library and please share your favorite poem from the book with us.
Do you have a chapbook published in 2018 or earlier that you would like featured as a Book of the Week? Contact us for details. Haiku featured in the Book of the Week Archive are selected by THF Digital Librarian Dan Campbell and are used with permission.
Some very appealing verses here (in English). I preferred the first two-thirds, up to:
“on the plane sharing the same wings”
and in the last third:
family album…
lights of a passing train
in the night
Thanks again, Dan, for all these opportunities to broaden our reading.
Wow…really hard to pick a favorite here! Seeing them in this trilingual format definitely adds to the beauty and interest of each of these haiku. Thank you for picking this book to highlight!
Very inspired haiku from an accomplished haiku writer. What a lovely read. Hard to pick one favourite so have chosen four:
sunset –
shadows lay down
to rest
summer night
in the waterless river
ghosts of fish
on the plane sharing the same wings
evening wind …
scent of grass
from the other bank of the river