Omowazu mo

思わずも/ヒヨコ生れぬ/冬薔薇
(河東碧梧桐 1873-1937)

omowazu mo / hiyoko umarenu / fuyu sobi
(Kawahigashi Hekigoto 1873-1937)

unexpectedly
a chick is born,
winter rose


Translations of this haiku are available on the net, mostly in languages other than English, though there is one in English. However, I didn't find it immediately, so I'll include my own rather similar version (which really was all my own work - not many ways you can translate this poem!) Without the furigana in my book, I'd probably have read the last two characters as 'bara', but 'sobi' is another word for 'rose'. 'Sobi' is actually three kana (そうび, which could be written 'soubi') so that preserves the 5-7-5 pattern for Kawahigashi again, despite his reputation for breaking that pattern down (maybe it was later in his career).

The form 'umarenu' struck me as a little strange here, as it looks like a negative form. However, 'nu' can apparently be a perfect form as well, describing something that has happened, and if you google 'umarenu' you find that it is also used in carols translated into Japanese talking about Jesus being born. It makes me wonder if there is some kind of Christian reference in the use of the word and what might be a miraculous winter birth. Not that I have any evidence for Kawahigashi being a Christian, but the ideas were certainly floating around at the time, with the recent interest in Western ideas. Besides this, if there is a Christian reference, there's something faintly ironic about it that might suggest a non-believer, given the gap between the 'Saviour of Mankind' and a little katakana chick.

Alternate searches:

'fuyu soubi'