The Second edition of Santoka International Haiku Contest

“Freedom”

It is a great honour to announce that we received 179 submissions from 42 countries and 6 continents for the 2nd Santoka International Haiku Contest; we wish that next year we will finally receive the first haiku from an emperor penguin from the distant and cold Antarctica. Joking aside, with an increased number of poems comes greater responsibility, which made the difficult task of selecting the best haiku even harder. In search of freedom in the solitude of the Himalayas, I chose the following 6 haiku which made me feel its sweet taste at least for a moment with their beauty, power and simplicity.

Translation into Serbian by Aleksandar Vasić.
Translation into Japanese by Margareta Samoran.

Damir Damir, the sacred place of Nammo Buddha, 9 April 2019

1st place

Rajandeep Garg, India

just as the cloud’s

shadow on the earth…

a gypsy girl

地球上で

雲の影のような

ジプシーの女

poput senke oblaka

na zemlji…

cigančica

2nd place

Eduard Tara, Romania

milky way

the wire fence never

too high

天の川

ワイヤーフェンス決して

高すぎない

mlečni put

žičana ograda nikada

previsoka

3rd place

Ed Bremson, United States of America

a dream of starlings…

the one that doesn’t follow

the others

他の鳥に

付いて行かない

ムクドリの夢

sanjam čvorke…

tog jednog koji ne sledi

ostale

Highly Commended

Saša Važić, Serbia

snow angel

carrying me high to reach

mother’s last breath

雪の天使

私を高く上げる

母の息

anđeo u snegu

uzdiže me da osetim

majčin poslednji dah

Angel Dyulgerov, Bulgaria

late summer

crickets renting

the demolished house

晩夏

壊された家を

借りる蟋蟀

pozno leto

cvrčci su iznajmili

srušenu kuću

Antonio Martínez Rubio, Spain

nothing to do

seeing the winter moon

over the mountains

山の上の

冬の月を見る

何もしない

nemam šta da radim

gledajući u zimski mesec

iza planina