Matsuo Basho: English translations of Haiku about Life 1

Matsuo Basho: English translations of haiku about clouds, geese, departing, empty nests and huts, lonely, loneliness, drinking alone, sake, longing, loss, death, hawks, the moon, Japanese culture. As clouds drift apart, so we two separate: wild geese departing. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch The old nest deserted, how empty now my next-door neighbor’s hut. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch Yesterday? Departed, like the blowfish soup. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch Exciting, but with a sad conclusion: cormorant fishing. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch The one who died: her delicate kimono hung out to dry. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch Behind the veiling curtain, the wife in her bedchamber: plum blossoms. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch See her slim figure: the ingenue moon not yet ripened. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch Clouds now and then offer intermissions from moon-viewing. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch Drinking alone with the moon, my shadow makes three. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch The moon and the blossoms lack only a man drinking sake, alone. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch Unbar the door, allow moonlight to enter Ukimido. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch Drinking morning tea, the monks silent amid chrysanthemums. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch Its fragrance whiter than the peach blossoms’ whiteness: the narcissus. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch The narcissus reflects the whiteness of a paper screen. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch Hibiscus flowers garland an otherwise naked child. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch The overproud pink begonia thinks it’s a watermelon. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch Echo my lonesomeness, mountain cuckoo. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch The cuckoo’s lone voice lingers over the inlet. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch Solitary hawk, a heavenly vision over Cape Irago. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch At Cape Irago the incomparable cry of the hawk. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch Better than any dream, the thrilling reality of a hawk’s cry. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch The hawk’s eye narrows at the quail’s call. —Matsuo Basho, translation by Michael R. Burch