Basho loved his banana tree. When his house burnt to the ground, his students raised money to have a new hut built and the banana tree transplanted. A person loyal to a tree is a person worth knowing.
The crane's legs
have gotten shorter
in the spring rain.
The oak tree:
not interested
in cherry blossoms.
It's not anything
they compare it to--
the summer moon.
Wrapping dumplings in
bamboo leaves, with one finger
she tidies her hair.
bamboo leaves, with one finger
she tidies her hair.
Won't you come and see
loneliness? Just one leaf
from the kiri tree.
loneliness? Just one leaf
from the kiri tree.
Singing, planting rice,
village songs more lovely
than famous city poems.
village songs more lovely
than famous city poems.
The leafless cherry,
old as a toothless woman,
blooms in flowers,
mindful of its youth.
old as a toothless woman,
blooms in flowers,
mindful of its youth.
The temple bell stops.
but the sound keeps coming
out of the flowers.
but the sound keeps coming
out of the flowers.
Also Read:
Tomorrow: The Haiku of Issa
The first three haiku are from The Essential Haiku edited by Robert Hass.
The rest are from The Green Leaf.
Basho lived from 1644-1694.
(The Quakers arrived in Plymoth when Basho was twelve years old.)
A more exhaustive biography found here.
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