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grid's review
Some of this is very lovely. There's also a decent amount of historical/contextual content, and quite a bit of translated journal from Issa in particular.
pussreboots's review
3.0
I remember learning the basics of writing Haiku in fifth or sixth grade. I don't however remember any of the poems I wrote for school. Since then Haiku has been out of sight, out of mind for me. That was until my son and I read Dragon of the Red Dawn (Magic Tree House #37) by Mary Pope Osborne. The story centers on Jack and Annie meeting Matsuo Basho.
Whenever Sean comes across an interesting factual detail in a book he's reading he likes to research what he's learned. Usually he and I will do a web search to find an article but sometimes he wants more.
In the case of Basho, he wanted a book of his poetry. Luckily our library has a copy of The Essential Basho by Sam Hamill. It includes a brief biography of the poet and his most famous haikus. Sean was mostly interested in reading more of his work. So we took turns reading haikus to each other.
I love it when one book will lead to another as Dragon of the Red Dawn lead us to The Essential Basho.
Whenever Sean comes across an interesting factual detail in a book he's reading he likes to research what he's learned. Usually he and I will do a web search to find an article but sometimes he wants more.
In the case of Basho, he wanted a book of his poetry. Luckily our library has a copy of The Essential Basho by Sam Hamill. It includes a brief biography of the poet and his most famous haikus. Sean was mostly interested in reading more of his work. So we took turns reading haikus to each other.
I love it when one book will lead to another as Dragon of the Red Dawn lead us to The Essential Basho.
nekomeith's review
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
annemariewellswriter's review
4.0
I loved that this book also included biographies and journal entries written by the haikaishi. Some of my favorites:
Don’t live long
But you’d never know it —
The cicada’s cry.
You could turn this way,
I’m also lonely
This autumn evening.
Don’t imitate me;
It’s as boring as
The two halves of the melon.
Climb Mount Fuji
O snail,
But slowly, slowly.
Children imitating cormorants
Are even more wonderful
Than cormorants.
Don’t live long
But you’d never know it —
The cicada’s cry.
You could turn this way,
I’m also lonely
This autumn evening.
Don’t imitate me;
It’s as boring as
The two halves of the melon.
Climb Mount Fuji
O snail,
But slowly, slowly.
Children imitating cormorants
Are even more wonderful
Than cormorants.
debnanceatreaderbuzz's review
4.0
The Essential Haiku is a distillation of a distillation, the best of the best, a delight of simplicity, beauty, and truth. This book has reminded me of the brilliance of poetry, and the wonder that a tiny haiku holds. I will read more poetry. I will read more haiku.
lauriesand82's review
4.0
I am in no way an expert on poetry, much less haiku specifically, but I truly enjoyed this collection. As Hass explains in the "Note on Haikai, Hokku, and Haiku" at the end of the book, much of the meaning to be found in the poetry as it was originally written is lost in translation for the modern reader, partly because of the limitations of English, but also because the sense of cyclical time versus linear time that was an integral part of the culture of the time is simply not meaningful to us today, even for native Japanese. That said, a sense of the comfort given by the cyclical seasons and the beauty of nature still comes through in the English translation, even if the other layers of meaning are missing. I was most struck by the verses that, amazingly, have stood the test of time, geography, and culture. For example: Children imitating cormorants/are even more wonderful/than cormorants. Or: All the time I pray to Buddha/I keep on/killing mosquitoes. And my personal favorite: Don't worry spiders,/I keep house/casually. All three of these came from Issa, the poet I found to be far and away the most accessible of the three in the collection. Basho was nearly completely opaque to me, although I felt better about this when I read his notes on poetry to his students in which he states, "A verse that has something interesting it is all right, even if its meaning isn't very clear." Well that explains a few things, Basho.