Introduction to Haiku Quotes

“An ideal translation should, I believe, reproduce the effect of the original, but I have found that the best any translator can even hope for is to reproduce the effect that the originals have had on him.

(Preface, vi)”
― Harold G. Henderson, An Introduction to Haiku

“haiku were not written to be weighed down with commentary.

(Buson, p. 103)”
― Harold G. Henderson, An Introduction to Haiku

“good haiku are full of overtones. The elusiveness that is one of their chief charms comes, not from haziness, but from the fact that so much suggestion is put into so few words.

(Characteristics of Haiku, p. 4)”
― Harold G. Henderson, An Introduction to Haiku

“too much explanation can take the pleasure out of any poetry.

(Preface, vii)”
― Harold G. Henderson, An Introduction to Haiku