American readers have been fascinated, since their exposure to
Japanese culture late in the nineteenth century, with the brief
Japanese poem called the hokku or haiku. The seventeen-syllable
form is rooted in a Japanese tradition of close observation of
nature, of making poetry from subtle suggestion. Infused by its
great practitioners with the spirit of Zen Buddhism, the haiku has
served as an example of the power of direct observation to the
first generation of American modernist poets like Ezra Pound and
William Carlos Williams and also as an example of spontaneity and
Zen alertness to the new poets of the 1950's.
This definite collection brings together in fresh translations
by an American poet the essential poems of the three greatest
masters: Matsuo Basho in the seventeenth century; Yosa Buson in the
eighteenth century; and Kobayashi Issa in the early nineteenth
century. Robert Haas has written a lively and informed
introduction, provided brief examples by each poet of their work in
the halibun, or poetic prose form, and included informal notes to
the poems. This is a useful and inspiring addition to The Essential
Poets series.
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