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Moon Woke Me Up Nine Times: Selected Haiku of Basho

Matsuo Bashō,

David Young (Translation)

4.36 · Rating details · 204 ratings · 31 reviews

Vivid new translations of Basho's popular haiku, in a selected format ideal for newcomers as well as fans long familiar with the Japanese master.

Basho, the famously bohemian traveler through seventeenth-century Japan, is a poet attuned to the natural world as well as humble human doings; "Piles of quilts/ snow on distant mountains/ I watch both," he writes. His work captur ...more

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Paperback, 106 pages

Published April 2nd 2013 by Knopf (first published 1694)

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Aug 09, 2017 Khashayar Mohammadi rated it really liked it

Shelves: asian-lit, poetry, japanese-lit

Nicely edited collection; but my personal favorite part was the few pages in the appendix dedicated to Basho's longer poems ...more

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Jan 18, 2015 Mari rated it really liked it

Beautiful, simple and meditative. Basho is one of my favorite Japanese poets. This is a good book to start reading Basho. When modern life has me feeling depressed or anxious or stressed, I turn to haiku for they bring me back down to Earth and remind me of the beauty in the simplicity of nature and the things around me and of being alive.

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Jul 11, 2017 Punk rated it it was amazing

Shelves: poetry, in-translation, good-more-than-once

A delightful collection. David Young's introduction is informative and easy to read, which is a rarity in poetry collections and must be praised, though you won't learn a thing about Bashō from it. Young says you can get that everywhere else; instead, the introduction addresses Young's approach to translating these poems, and I was quite surprised at the amount of latitude Young gave himself. Due to the differences between the number of syllables in English and Japanese, he disregards the West's A delightful collection. David Young's introduction is informative and easy to read, which is a rarity in poetry collections and must be praised, though you won't learn a thing about Bashō from it. Young says you can get that everywhere else; instead, the introduction addresses Young's approach to translating these poems, and I was quite surprised at the amount of latitude Young gave himself. Due to the differences between the number of syllables in English and Japanese, he disregards the West's belief that haiku must conform to a 5-7-5 arrangement, which is fine by me, but he also elides cultural references he thought would be lost on English-speaking audiences, reorders the lines themselves, and even removes the occasional question mark, and I don't know how I feel about that. The result is lovely, but is it an honest reflection of Bashō's words?

In Young's hands, Bashō's poetry is clear and simple, each haiku a meditation on life and nature. They are, by turns, longing, playful, soothing, and contemplative, and it's remarkable how many sensory details they include. So much is packed into these little sentences, giving you brief glimpses of another life, transporting you to where Bashō was three hundred years ago, listening to the rain, gardening, or:

Big white leeks
washing them off
feeling how cold

The poetry is transcendent, in that it moved me to a different place. Once I came back, though, I wondered a lot about the choices Young made. I really would have liked some translator's notes (outside of those in the introduction), but instead I'll have to content myself with reading Jane Reichhold's Basho: The Complete Haiku and go over her notes to see how their translations differ. This is actually Young's idea, and he helpfully includes an appendix that correlates his page numbers with Reichhold's numbering system for easy comparison.

Really accessible, and highly recommended.

March 2020: I've now re-read this book alongside Reichhold's, and while Reichhold's translations are perhaps more faithful to Basho's words, I feel like Young's do a better job of getting across Basho's intentions. Many of Reichhold's translations wouldn't have made much sense to me without the historical and cultural context included in her translator notes, but Young's translations stand on their own. ...more

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Dec 03, 2014 Karen Michele Burns rated it it was amazing

Shelves: my-5-star-books

Back in my school days, haiku was really the only poetic form that I understood. I could even succeed in writing some haiku that were decent, at least they were more successful than any other poetry I wrote. i decided to revisit haiku by reading the master of the form, Basho. I was entranced again by the beauty of such a short collection of words. The simplicity that holds so much more meaning than you would think could be contained in such a small package is a large part of why haiku appeals to ...more

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Aug 15, 2013 ༺Kiki༻ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, asia-japan

If you liked this book, you might also enjoy:

✱ Basho's Narrow Road: Spring and Autumn Passages
✱ The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa
✱ On Love and Barley: Haiku of Basho ...more

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Aug 03, 2014 Meredith rated it it was amazing

Shelves: book-hunting, owned-books, non-fiction, print, atticus-new-haven, adult

So beautiful! Joyful and sorrowful, reading this haiku was very enjoyable. Even with it's limited words, each haiku gave such rich settings and emotions that while reading them, I felt i was right there with the poet! I highly recommend this slim volume to just about anyone. Even someone who may not like poems or haiku. I feel that most people would love to read this relaxing little book and soak up it's beauty. ...more

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Jun 06, 2013 Jeffrey Bumiller rated it it was amazing

This is far and away the best collection of Basho's Haiku that I've ever read. The translations seem really fresh, alive, and consistent throughout the book. This book is also laid out wonderfully, the Haiku's look beautiful on the page. I read one or two poems a day and it was really great to have my daily moment with Basho. This is a great book. ...more

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Jul 07, 2013 Amy Neftzger rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed these translations which kept true to the spirit of the writing without attempting to choosing words that forced the syllables into the traditional haiku format. The poems were written that way, but sometimes meaning becomes obscured when translators pay more attention to the meter than the content. This is a book of beautiful poems that have been nicely translated.

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Jul 06, 2013 Timothy Langhorst rated it it was amazing

Very enjoyable book. David Young's translation of selected Haiku by Basho. Young's introduction to the 188 Haiku in this book provides context to the reading. Would definitely recommend this book. ...more

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May 16, 2015 Jackson rated it really liked it

Interesting new translations; very terse compared to the translations I've read in the past. I still prefer Robert Hass's translations, but that's probably just because Hass's versions are what I read first (a long time ago) and am accustomed to. ...more

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Apr 07, 2013 Edward Rathke rated it it was amazing

Shelves: poetry

This is simple beauty. Love it.

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Dec 20, 2013 Peter Schmidt rated it it was amazing

The best translation out there, plus a superb introduction on Basho's like and why the haiku is such a immortal poetic form, esp in his hands.
...more

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Feb 05, 2015 Leah rated it it was amazing

Wonderful, free form translations of Basho poems.

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Feb 25, 2015 Desmond Beddoe rated it really liked it

Wonder filled simplicity

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Apr 16, 2015 Juli Anna rated it really liked it

Shelves: poetry

Unusual translations of Bashō--quite playful and sound-oriented. Intro is worth a read, as well.

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Sep 16, 2018 Laszlo Szerdahelyi rated it really liked it

''Look at its shape
the moon is just a young girl
Sent to bed early''

David Young does an excellent job in writing a beautiful introduction to this collection of haiku by Basho as well as in the selection of Basho's works is done in such a way that it amplifies the feelings expressed in the haiku's and offers a framework for their unfolding.

Matsuo Basho abandoned his life in the privileged samurai class of 17th century Japan and spent many years roaming Japan in all directions looking to gain inspi ''Look at its shape
the moon is just a young girl
Sent to bed early''

David Young does an excellent job in writing a beautiful introduction to this collection of haiku by Basho as well as in the selection of Basho's works is done in such a way that it amplifies the feelings expressed in the haiku's and offers a framework for their unfolding.

Matsuo Basho abandoned his life in the privileged samurai class of 17th century Japan and spent many years roaming Japan in all directions looking to gain inspiration for his writing. His works, short, concise yet they are, each and every one of them, the equivalent of a spice jar, they contain concentrated feelings and images that when read bring about an image, followed by a feeling. The reader can see the experience Basho might have had and then recall a similar feeling him or herself. Often, this comes about with a slight sense of melancholy, nostalgia, although some of his poems are sometimes hilariously funny and playful:

''Flowers bloom everywhere
Fun-loving priest
Available wife''

''Moon almost full
I am thirty-nine
A child still.''

Many of his works are born out of the effect the world has on Basho as he travels through Japan, David Young does a great job in chronologically arranging his works so that the continuity is felt strongly and we can see the authors feelings unfold over several seasons. Basho often is triggered by small moments, the sound of wooden clogs in a monastery, a hesitant dragonfly trying to decide which blade of grass to land on. His feelings are often enveloped in sadness, loneliness, the sense of nostalgia and melancholy often dominates and even sometimes an overwhelming feeling of sorrow, yet these feelings are so well encapsulated despite the shortness of the poems that they are beautiful in and of themselves as they so beautifully weave language into images in the mind of the reader. Basho acts as a constant observer of his environment and weather its people or nature or the general surroundings, he manages so well to capture the essence of this process of perception that one can easily understand his genious.

''Old yam digger
Please explain
This mountain's sorrow.''

This collection is definitely a great way to get into Basho or haiku in general, the poems read easily, and reread even better, nice to open the book and take a sniff out of one of the many spice jars prepared by Basho, to remind us of our humanity and our connection to the beauty of nature in the midst of a hectic world and to not forget the essence of the beauty of nature, and sometimes it only takes a walk in a park, a bird singing on a branch or beetle struggling with a sidewalk to reconnect with that which is so often obscured from us. ...more

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Aug 29, 2020 Tom Scott rated it really liked it

I don’t really like or respect Haiku. I probably developed this notion in junior high where I was forced to read and write it way before I was ready. I can only guess I was a pretty crappy student and scoffed at the simplicity thinking myself above it. It’s baby-stuff. Corn-ball. Easy-peasy. That attitude, noted now with a bit of embarrassment, has stayed with me up until, well, a day or two ago. On a lark, I bought a book by Basho, who is considered the master of the form. Ok, Basho, show me wh ...more

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Oct 11, 2020 Neeraja rated it it was amazing

Shelves: poetry

Lovely collection, well-translated!

Here are a few of my favourites:

1.
Sight of that mountain
makes me forget
I’m getting old

2.
Let’s go snow viewing
fall down a lot
before we get there

3.
We have to say farewell
the deer’s antlers
have to branch

4.
Midnight frost
I’d like to borrow
the scarecrow’s coat

5.
Battlefield, now summer grass
all that’s left of
soldier dreams

6.
Old lady cherry tree
blooming in age—
memories

7.
First rain of winter
today’s a day
people get older

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Jul 11, 2015 Ben Smith rated it really liked it

My favorite poet, though admittedly I'm not a fan of most poetry. Basho has a way of transporting you to another time and place in just a few lines, and reading his haiku is an almost meditative experience. On the other hand, some of his haiku is surprisingly funny and breaks up what otherwise could get a bit monotonous. ...more

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Aug 14, 2017 Kent Winward rated it really liked it

the book was short
the syllables not counted
nature evoking emotion.

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Sep 09, 2018 Andrew rated it liked it

Basho (1644-1694) is the heavyweight of haiku (with a feather-light poetic touch). I'd encountered his work in anthologies and was drawn to this dedicated volume because it was contemporary, had a wonderful title and a lovely cover design.

In poetic translation, it's a truism that the translator is playing a significant role, and this is certainly true of haiku. So this is Basho and David Young. I have to admit that these versions didn't strike me as often as I was expecting (and I think the haik ...more

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Dec 04, 2017 Hunter Marston rated it really liked it

Wonderful experience flipping through Basho's haikus ...more

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Feb 04, 2018 Stella Kydd rated it it was amazing

Shelves: poetry

If you haven't I suggest you do!
Charming. ...more

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Apr 16, 2019 Cam Netland rated it it was amazing

Year after year
On the monkey’s face
A monkey mask

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May 22, 2019 Blake Charlton rated it liked it

a sold translation and contemplation of basho.

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Aug 20, 2019 Geoffrey rated it really liked it

“Polished mirror
bright again
flowering snowflakes”

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Nov 23, 2019 Cassidy Jones rated it it was amazing

Phenomenal.

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Feb 05, 2020 Ben Niespodziany rated it it was amazing

Made me want to go outside and describe the sky. And the sea. And the dream. Great, timeless meditations.

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Sep 03, 2020 Will Parra rated it it was amazing

This book changed my life

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Dec 26, 2017 Lu rated it did not like it

The introduction is half of the book. There are very few haiku's in the book.

These are the ones I liked the best.:

Everyone in this house
has gray hair, walks with a cane,
visits the graveyard

Practice practice
every morning
cricket musician

Autumn is leaving
you'd like to hide
in an opium poppy

Sweeping the garden
the broom as it goes
forgets the snow

The full moon
rides in on the froth
of the salt tide

Lightning
doesn't leave you enlightened
-- good to know that

The nun lives alone
straw thatch cold heart
wh ...more

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About Matsuo Bashō

Matsuo Bashō

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MATSUO Bashō (松尾芭蕉) was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was renowned for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, he is recognized as a master of brief and clear haiku.