HAIKU BY Matsuo Bashō
At the ancient pond
a frog plunges into
the sound of water
Bashō – tr. Sam Hamill – The Sound of Water (Shambhala, 2000)
Nothing in the cry
of cicadas suggests they
are about to die
Bashō – tr. Sam Hamill – The Sound of Water (Shambhala, 2000)
How reluctantly
the bee emerges from deep
within the peony
Bashō – tr. Sam Hamill – The Sound of Water (Shambhala, 2000)
Wrapping dumplings in
bamboo leaves, with one finger
she tides her hair
Bashō – tr. Sam Hamill – The Sound of Water (Shambhala, 2000)
Awakened at midnight
by the sound of the water jar
cracking from the ice
Bashō – tr. Sam Hamill – The Sound of Water (Shambhala, 2000)
On a withered branch
a crow has settled—
autumn nightfall.
Bashō – tr. Harold G. Henderson – An Introduction to Haiku (Doubleday, 1958)
Did it yell
till it became all voice?
Cicada-shell!
Bashō – tr. Harold G. Henderson – An Introduction to Haiku (Doubleday, 1958)
The usually hateful crow:
he, too—this morning,
on the snow!
Bashō – tr. Harold G. Henderson – An Introduction to Haiku (Doubleday, 1958)
Won’t you come and see
loneliness? Just one leaf
from the kiri tree.
Bashō – tr. Harold G. Henderson – An Introduction to Haiku (Doubleday, 1958)
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