Haiku 10: This road...

Here is today's haiku:

この道や行く人なしに秋の暮れ

And in romaji:

kono michi ya yuku hito nashi ni aki no kure

And English: "This road — there goes... nobody; autumn twilight."

This is one of my favorite poems by Basho. The Japanese is very simple, but it's hard to get the word in order which is one of my main goals in rendering a haiku into English. Also the negating なし nashi and the particle に ni don't function quite like English words, and 行くyuku can mean coming or going — and "going/coming person not in" just won't do for a translation, but that's the idea. 

Anyway, the reason this is one of my favorites is because of a little game I play on my balcony: I can see a major road from there, including a stoplight at an intersection, and I "win" the game if there is not a single car or pedestrian in sight. Usually this only happens in the evenings or on weekends or holidays: my moments of solitude-in-the-city.

art by Tsuchida Bakusen

My vocabulary for today:

道
みち
"road, way"