Haiku: Gems of intimate beauty in a new collection of classic Japanese poetry

by R. H. Blyth

English, Japanese (translation)

Genres: Poetry, Japan

61 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful collection of Haiku.

I cannot add anything except to quote Rabindranath Tagore from the introduction:

"Often a poem consists of no more than three lines, but these are sufficient both for poets and readers...The hearts of these people are not resonant like a waterfall, but silent like a lake. All their poems which I have heard are picture-poems, not song-poems...We do not have to break our hearts over flowers and birds or the moon. Our only connection with them is the enjoyment of beauty; they do not hurt us anywhere, or deprive us of anything; our lives are in no wise maimed by them. That is why three lines are enough."

I do think that Haiku is calm and contemplative. One regards the season, flower, bird and animal spoken of in each poem. Each haiku is a small visual painting framed in words.

Basho, Buson, and Issa are considered the three best known haiku poets and many, of not most of the poems in this collection are by them. However, there are good samples from others as well.

[Amber Bourassa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my night read to my daughter and read aloud value is 1/5 stars. I would read three lines and hallucinate a gorgeous scene of autumn mountains and get lost in the fantasy and then snap back to life and be like "Oh yeah, anyway A solitary bird/ for my companion / upon the withered moor"

and then I'd start daydreaming about some guy and a bird

so yeah great to read alone ESPECIALLY with some cherry blossom Japanese playlist on Spotify

not great to read aloud

[LInda L · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful collection of haiku -- Hughes did a good job.

[Genny20 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really nice haikus! You can see my favorites in the updates for this reading and what page they are on.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really nice selection of haiku organized by season.

[Brandon Amico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this collection of haiku. As usual, there is plenty of the most known haiku poets translated into English (Bashō, Buson, and Issa) but also a few others that many might not know, but have some remarkable poems.

The poems are arranged by season, which helps in creating a stable mood and sense of time for each section.

A great, short sampler of haiku from a variety of Japanese poets.

[Trevor · Rating 5 out of 5]

The moon beginning to fall
On four or five people,
Dancing!
--BUSON

[Rem · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice little collection of poetry I found at a library sale. Includes photos of Japan as well to accentuate the haiku.