The Classic Tradition of Haiku: An Anthology by Faubion Bowers
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The other haiku anthology I reviewed is Classic Haiku, located here.
This is the second haiku anthology that I’ve reviewed on my site. While they’re both thin volumes of traditional haiku, each has its distinct flavor. The previous volume was organized by season. This one is organized by author. The two books share several authors (e.g. the greats Bashō, Issa, and Buson), but diverge on many of the lesser known poets.
One nice feature of this book is that it offers multiple translations of many of the haiku. Poetry is notoriously tricky to translate as literal translations can be meaningless. Multiple translations can give one a better opportunity to hone in on what the author meant to convey. This volume does give the original Japanese poem in romanized transcription (for those who enjoy the sound the author conveyed as well as meaning), but–unlike the other volume–it does not include the kanji. (This doesn’t matter for me, as I don’t read Japanese, but I’m sure the kanji is a nice feature for readers of Japanese.)
Some favorites are:
clouds occasionally
make a fellow relax
moon-viewing
Matsuo Bashō
islands
shattered into a thousand pieces
in the summer sea
Matsuo Bashō
you’re the butterfly
and I the dreaming heart
of Sōshi
Matsuo Bashō
[Note: Sōshi is the Japanese name of the Taoist thinker Chuang Tze, and this references his famous statement about having dreamt he was a butterfly.]
that dream I had
of being stabbed–was true
bitten by a flea
Takarai Kikaku
oh, won’t some orphaned sparrow
come
and play with me
Kobayashi Issa
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Tags: Book Review, books, haiku, japan, literature, poetry
By B Gourley in Book Reviews, Books, Japan, Literature, poem, Poetry, Review, Reviews on May 13, 2013.
