reading Basho’s poems
learning on a summer’s
day
I ‘m a poor haijin
The 2008 collection Basho: The Complete Haiku by
Matsuo Basho is translated by Jane Reichhold with an introduction,
biography and notes. This is an excellent introduction to traditional Japanese
haiku. Basho (1644-1694), after all, was an early practitioner and developer of
this unique poetic art form; he set many of the standards for this type of
poetry that are still practiced today.
Reichhold, a honored haijin (i.e. haiku writer) in her own right, has
gathered all of Basho’s haiku under one cover. Surprisingly there are only
1012. After an interesting introduction, the haiku are presented in chapters
that describe seven different stages or passages of the poet’s life.
Then the verses are examined again in Notes where each haiku
is shown in Japanese, Romanized Japanese for the sound counters, and in
English. Each poem has the year it was written and to which season it belongs
along with expository notes to explain the subtlety of the verse in terms of
history, symbols and the Japanese language. Reichhold also provides a
descriptive list of 33 haiku techniques to help the reader to better appreciate
the art form as well as other useful back matter. This is an excellent book
that I would add to my personal library.
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