30 Poems: Number 16(ish)

[winterbadger]

I don't want to short non-English poetry. Here are a couple of pieces by the master of haiku, Matsuo Basho.

uma wo sae / nagamuru yuki no / ashita kana

even a horse / arrests my eyes on this / snowy morrow

That certainly conjures an image of a still landscape, sheeted in white, with a slowly plodding horse in stark relief.

One of his famous compositions

furu ike ya / kawazu tobikomu / mizu no oto

an ancient pond / a frog jumps in / the splash of water

For my frog-loving friends and relations. :-)

iza saraba / yukimi ni korobu / tokoromade

now then, let's go out / to enjoy the snow... until / I slip and fall!

Back to winter again, and a common sensation!

Comments

[tispity.livejournal.com]

I really like these, especially the first one. Thanks for sharing!

[la-renardine.livejournal.com]

Love these. Thanks for including haiku - and loved that you presented them in both English and Japanese. I think I like the third best - but each one is so great.

[winterbadger]

Glad you enjoy!

I found this page as well, which provides "interpretations" of his poems. I didn't like them so much; not because they weren't lovely writing, some of them, but because they seemed to go rather far afield from his actual words, like films that are "based on" books , or even worse, "inspired by"...