Personal Choice Volume 2 No.35

When I came home you

were gone – lilacs we sowed, in

another garden.

Lily pond twilight

breaks old silence – a frog jumps

into its new self.

Summer grasshopper

tiny graveyard visitor

instantly alive.

For perfect delight

try crossing this creek bed with

hike-boots in one hand.

translated from the Japanese after Matsuo Bashô

Matsuo Bashō (1644 - 1694 was the most famous Japanese poet of the Edo period. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works of haikai. After centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest master of haiku (then called hokku). He is also well known for his travel essays beginning with Records of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton (1684), written after his journey west to Kyoto and Nara. Matsuo Bashō's poetry is internationally renowned, and, in Japan, many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Although Bashō is famous in the West for his hokku, he himself believed his best work lay in leading and participating in renku. As he himself said, ‘Many of my followers can write hokku as well as I can. Where I show who I really am is in linking haikai verses.’