Haiku by women

12.02.2026

A delicate yet powerful collection featuring the major Japanese women poets who wrote haiku. The volume, edited and translated by Cristina Banella, is of rare beauty. Each haiku is accompanied by an explanation, allowing readers to fully appreciate references, cultural connections, and nuances that might otherwise be difficult to grasp at first reading.

We offer you two of them, inviting you to read them all—as small daily oracles, or to seek and discover images capable of sparking subtle wonder or triggering possible revelations.

Wild geese
like little waves
gradually fading away

Abe Midorijo

On the tatami I sit
like a butterfly: a white
pumpkin flower

Hasegawa Kanajo