With the utmost economy and skill, the haiku poet paints a vast mural on a narrow canvas. Working within the strict 17-syllable limits of the traditional Japanese form, Matsuo Basho (1644–1694) and other masters evoke elements of the natural world to conjure up timeless moods and emotions. This volume features dozens of Basho's poems as well as works by his predecessors and ten of his disciples — Kikaku, Ransetsu, Joso, and Kyoroku among them. Intended principally for readers with no knowledge of Japanese literature, this treasury includes the original Japanese text, a transliteration, and English translations for each verse; most poems also include a brief explication.

Classic Haiku: An Anthology of Poems by Basho and His Followers

Literature & Fiction

Basho

Poetry

Dover Publications

This is the essential English edition of the complete poems of the eminent Japanese master of the haiku, Matsuo Bashō.\nMatsuo Bashō (1644–1694) is arguably the greatest figure in the history of Japanese literature and the master of the haiku. Bashō: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Bashō offers in English a full picture of the haiku of Bashō, 980 poems in all. Andrew Fitzsimons’ translation is the first to adhere strictly to form: all of the poems are translated following the syllabic count of the originals. This book also translates a number of Bashō’s headnotes to poems ignored by previous English-language translators.\nIn Fitzsimons’ beautiful rendering, Bashō is much more than a philosopher of the natural world and the leading exponent of a refined Japanese sensibility. He is also a poet of queer love and eroticism; of the city as well as the country, the indoors and the outdoors, travel and staying put; of lonesomeness as well as the desire to be alone.\nHis poetry explores the full range of social experience in Edo Japan as he moved among friends and followers high and low, the elite and the demi-monde, the less fortunate: poor farmers, abandoned children, disregarded elders. Bashō: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Bashō reveals how this work speaks to our concerns today as much as it captures a Japan emerging from the Middle Ages. For dedicated scholars and those coming upon Bashō for the first time, Fitzsimons’ elegant translation—with an insightful introduction and helpful notes—allows readers to enjoy these works in all their glory.

Basho: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Basho (World Literature in Translation)

History & Criticism

University of California Press

Basho: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Basho (Collector’s Edition)

One spring morning in 1689, Basho, arguably the greatest of all Japanese poets, set forth on foot, accompanied by his friend and disciple Sora, from his hermitage in Edo (old Tokyo) on one final journey--a pilgrimage that eventually took him nearly 1,500 miles. Now, more than 300 years later--via beautifully spare prose sprinkled with haiku and graceful translation--this book provides the account of Basho's arduous trek. 16 illustrations.

Back Roads to Far Towns: Basho's Oku-No-Hosomichi

Mushinsha / Grossman

American readers have been fascinated, since their exposure to Japanese culture late in the nineteenth century, with the brief Japanese poem called the hokku or haiku. The seventeen-syllable form is rooted in a Japanese tradition of close observation of nature, of making poetry from subtle suggestion. Infused by its great practitioners with the spirit of Zen Buddhism, the haiku has served as an example of the power of direct observation to the first generation of American modernist poets like Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and also as an example of spontaneity and Zen alertness to the new poets of the 1950's.
This definite collection brings together in fresh translations by an American poet the essential poems of the three greatest masters: Matsuo Basho in the seventeenth century; Yosa Buson in the eighteenth century; and Kobayashi Issa in the early nineteenth century. Robert Haas has written a lively and informed introduction, provided brief examples by each poet of their work in the halibun, or poetic prose form, and included informal notes to the poems. This is a useful and inspiring addition to The Essential Poets series.

The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson & Issa (The Essential Poets, Vol. 20)

Buson

Issa

Ecco Press

One Man's Moon: Fifty Haiku by Basho, Buson, Issa, Hakuin, Shiki, Santoka (English and Japanese Edition)

Gnomon Distribution

Quintessential classical Japanese haiku--selected and translated by one of America's premier poet-translators--now available in a pocket edition. In this collection of haiku, translator Sam Hamill has compiled the best from the tradition, spanning the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries, with particular focus on the three great masters: Bashō, Buson, and Issa. Based on images from nature, the poems address the themes of joy, temporality, beauty, wonder, loneliness, and loss. Haiku may be the most popular and widely recognizable poetic form in the world. In just three lines a great haiku presents a crystalline moment of image, emotion, and awareness. Elements of compassion, silence, and a sense of temporality often combine to reveal a quality of mystery. Just as often, haiku may bring a startling insight into the ordinary, or a flash of humor. Collected here are over two hundred of the best haiku of Japanese literature--written by the great masters of the genre. The featured poets are Bashō, Buson, Issa, Moritake, Sōin, Sanpū, Kikaku, Ransetsu, Kyorai, Raizan, Kakei, Onitsura, Taigi, Chiyo, Sogetsuni, Sogi, Fuhaku, Teiga, Kikusha-ni, Tayo-jo, Sōchō, Shōha, and Shiki. This is a pocket-size reissue of The Sound of Water (Shambhala, 1995).

The Pocket Haiku

Shambhala

Basho (1644–1694) is the most famous Haiku poet of Japan. He made his living as a teacher and writer of Haiku and is celebrated for his many travels around Japan, which he recorded in travel journals. This translation of his most mature journal, Oku-No-Hosomichi, details the most arduous part of a nine-month journey with his friend and disciple, Sora, through the backlands north of the capital, west to the Japan Sea and back toward Kyoto. More than a record of the journey, Basho’s journal is a poetic sequence that has become a center of the Japanese mind/heart. Ten illustrations by Hide Oshiro illuminate the text.
Cid Corman was well-known as a poet, translator and editor of Origin, the ground-breaking poetry magazine.

Backroads To Far Towns: Basho's Travel Journal (Companions for the Journey)

White Pine Press

L'art Du Haiku (French Edition)

Shiki

Literary

Distribooks, Inc

L'art du haïku

Shiki, Masaoka

Parenting & Relationships

BELFOND

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Basho. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Basho