Jessica’s Reviews > The Sound of Water: Haiku by Basho, Buson, Issa, and Other Poets > Status Update

On the old plum tree
one blossom by one blossom
the spring thaw is born

In the midst of this world
we stroll along the roof of hell
gawking at flowers

Issa

What is the lord's vast wealth
to me, his millions and more?
Dew on trembling grass

Brilliant moon
is it true that you too
must pass in a hurry

Issa

On these southern roads,
on shrine or thatched roof, all the same
swallows everywhere

Buson

Summer grasses:
all that remains of great soldiers'
imperial dreams

Autumn approaches
and the heart begins to dream
of four-tatami rooms

Crossing half the sky,
on my way to the capital,
big clouds promise snow

Behind Ise Shrine,
unseen, hidden by the fence,
Buddha enters nirvana

Exhausted, I sought
a country inn, but found
wisteria in bloom