Haiku

Hart Larrabee is an American translator who lives with his family in the little town of Obuse in northern Nagano, Japan, right in the heart of Issa country. His translations of short stories by Fumio Takano and Mitsuyo Kakuta have appeared, respectively, in the anthologies Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction and The Book of Tokyo: A City in Short Fiction. He also translates non-fiction, particularly in the fields of art, design, and architecture.

• IntroductionBashō The cut end of After darkness falls A crow at rest The crane’s legs Mist and Drizzle Fragrant orchid The oak tree An old pond Water jar cracks Winter sun These fireflies Such stillness In this bleak rain Beneath the tree Of its approaching death Those who see lightning Even loathsome crows Early autumn A whiff of plum blossoms Rainy season A cool wall This road Taken ill while travellingBuson Such joy in crossing The spring sea Camphor roots An old well A spring shower Fuji alone Under the mosquito net A short summer night Late for the ferry Falling into the gloom In the old pond A thunderbolt and A swing of the axe In the quiet lull Spring rains The keen chill Mustard blossoms Such joy in watching All along these ancient roads The one I yearn to meet Falling blossoms Gentle spring rain All that remainsIssa Spilling from the sleeves Clinging Diminished with age Three coins Mountain temple Snowfall outside No breeze but from Spring arrives The winter fly I spared Is this, then So composed Sleeping spread-eagled Melting snows Scrawny frogs The hum of mosquitoes Come Passing through Spiders in the corners Gathering chestnuts No one to scold My home village No sleep for meShiki A pruned branch So desperately Hydrangeas Cooling moon Come back alive Swept up by the wind The train passes After killing a spider At the public bath In the next room, too House-bound in winter A summer insect Settled on The old garden Over the rails Knife by the bed Song of the cicada A coffin on the On every island Snapped in a I untied the wrapping cloth A painting of snow Having painted a peony