Cherry Blossoms: Japanese Haiku Series III

by Kobayashi Issa, Matsuo Bashō, Yosa Buson

Step into a series of dazzling, funny, melancholy, and joyous moments with this collection of haiku masterworks. Beloved translator Peter Beilenson’s goals were to craft a book of haiku accessible to anyone, and to render his best guess at what the poets would have written in English. His translations preserve the sublime spirit of each verse, conjuring vivid visual and emotional impressions in spare words.Haiku icon Basho is represented amply here, as are imagery-virtuoso Buson and wry, warm, painfully human Issa. The verses of Shiki, Joso, Kyorai, Kikaku, Chora, Gyodai, Kakei, Izen, and others also appear, all illuminated by lovely woodblock prints. From the peaceful (Moonlight nightingale/Casts a whistling line of sound/Over the millpond–Basho) to the lively (Sudden radiance…/After October rainstorm/Re-reddened peppers–Buson) to the downright absurd (Ah sacred swallow…/Twittering from your nest in/Great Buddha’s nostril–Issa), this collection will stir your senses and your heart.

Genres: Poetry

62 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 6, 2013

About the author

Kobayashi Issa was a Japanese poet known for his haiku poems and journals. He is regarded as one of the four haiku masters in Japan, along with Bashō, Buson and Shiki. Reflecting the popularity and interest in Issa as man and poet, Japanese books on Issa outnumber those on Buson, and almost equal those on Bashō.

Although better known by his pen name Issa, he was born Kobayashi Yataro in 1763 on a farm in central Japan.