JAPANESE HAIKUSERIES II - TRANSLATIONS OF POEMS BY BASHO-BUSON-ISSA-SHIKI AND OTHERS

Sep 29, 2026

Japanese Haiku Series II presents translated haiku by Basho, Buson, Issa, Shiki, and others, framed by a note explaining the imagery and philosophy behind the poems. It highlights cherry blossoms as a symbol of transitory delight in the “floating world,” linking their brief blooming to the brevity of human life in reincarnation cycles. The note clarifies that haiku are fleeting impressions rather than clear statements, often rooted in Buddhist and Zen views of impermanence and universal inter-related creation, and it describes the role of seasonal keywords and season-based arrangement.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages72

Reading Time1 h 51 min

AccessFree to download

A Note on This Book of Haiku

Cherry-blossoms and impermanence

Haiku as impressions, not clear statements

Buddhist and Zen doctrine

Humor, description, and seasonal arrangement

JapaneseHaikuSeries ll 835.6 上 # JAPANESE HAIKUSERIES II TRANSLATIONS OFPOEMS BY BASHO·BUSON·ISSA·SHIKIAND OTHERS THE PETERPAUPER PRESS MOUNT VERNON·NEW YORK COPYRIGHT1960BY THEPETERPAUPERPRESS A NOTE ON THIS BOOK OF HAIKU In JAPAN cherry-blossoms are a favorite subjectof paintings and poems,and are indeed a symbolto the Japanese people of the transitory delight ofthe “floating world”—as they have called thislife on earth.For cherry-blossoms last only threedays,and the Buddhist Japanese thinks of his ownlife as an equally brief flowering in the endlesscycle of reincarnation and dissolution. Because the haiku is a poem only seventeen syl-lables long,and is usually a brief poignant insightinto the universality of this endless cycle,the titleCherry-Blossoms has been given to this our thirdcollection of haiku translations. Japanese poets of the present continue to writehaiku:Harold G.Henderson has estimated thatperhaps a million new haiku are published com-mercially in magazines each year.But the presentcollection is taken from the famous poets of thepast.Thus the reader will find the names Basho,Buson,Issa and Shiki much in evidence,for thesefour are the greatest practitioners.A few factsabout these men,and a discussion of the difficul-ties of haiku translation,are to be found in ourtwo previous collections. Here it is necessary only to remind the readerthat the poems are not intended to be clear state-ments.They are fleeting responses or impressionswhich usually illuminate the poet's awareness —and our own—of the identity of life on differentplanes.It is the Buddhist doctrine (and most ofthese poets are Zen Buddhists)that all things andcreatures in this world are temporary manifesta-tions risen from the eternal,infinite ocean of Life;and that everything,—from a mountain peak to acherry-blossom,from a beautiful girl to the littleexcrement of a bird,—is a part of the universaland inter-related brotherhood of creation. Of course,not all these poems have this subtlequality.There are a number purely humorous ordescriptive. The haiku almost always has a season key-word.Here these have often been omitted,but thepoems are arranged by seasons.Since the NewYear traditionally begins the Spring,a few coldpoems start the book;but the snow soon melts andleaves and blossoms appear. The interested reader is referred to our ]apaneseHaiku:Series I,to The Four Seasons,Haiku SeriesII,and Haiku Harvest,Series IV.

FAQs

Why are cherry blossoms used as a central theme in these haiku translations?

Cherry blossoms symbolize the transitory delight of the “floating world,” and their short three-day blooming parallels the brevity of life in the cycle of reincarnation and dissolution.

What does the book say haiku are intended to do?

Haiku are not meant to be clear statements; they are fleeting responses or impressions that illuminate the poet’s awareness and the reader’s sense of life across different planes.

How are the poems organized throughout the collection?

The haiku almost always has a season keyword; here the keywords are often omitted, but the poems are arranged by seasons, starting with a few cold poems before moving toward melting snow, leaves, and blossoms.

Sep 29, 2026

Uploaded by Alex Sinclair