Haiku by Shiki

Three thousand,
Haiku to examine,
Two persimmons

三千の俳句を閲し柿二つ (sanzen no haiku wo kemishi kaki futatsu): three thousand haiku looked through, and two persimmons. 閲し is 閲する, to look through, the selector's verb; Shiki read the verses sent to the newspaper 日本 by the box, and 柿, the persimmon, is the fruit that returns through his poems. In his own collection, as his disciple Kyoshi printed it in 1915, the verse stands under the year 1897 with a headnote of Shiki's own: 或日夜にかけて俳句凾の底を叩きて, one day, on into the night, striking the bottom of the haiku box. That is the whole story: the box emptied, and at the end of it the reward a sick man allows himself. Kyoshi later gave the night a fever in his novel 柿二つ, and every retelling since has taken it from him; the verse does not need it. Watson's English keeps the headnote as its title; Blyth's puts the count first and the persimmons last with nothing between them but the verb.

Writes Timothy L. Jackowski, Takase Studio translator, "This is the only art that I have in my office. Eri created this for me as a gift - which makes it even more special. While I do love persimmons, in my case, my persimmon is a five-mile run ... or ten. Each person is motivated differently - what gets you through the day? What is your persimmon?"