On Love and Barley: Haiku of Basho
Ratings4
Average rating4
15
Added to listPoetry
Reviewed
It's surprisingly hard to read an eighty-page book composed simply of 253 three-line, seventeen-syllable poems. This is Basho's oeuvre, and it had a profound effect upon the world and all the Japanese poets who came after him.
A few favorites:
“From the heart
of the sweet peony,
a drunken bee.”
“In my new robe
this morning—
someone else.”
And, of course...
“Old pond,
leap-splash—
a frog.”