Notes About The Poem

The most discussed Basho haiku How would you translate it?

The Most Famous Haiku

Furuike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto

- Basho



Literal Translation

Fu-ru (old) i-ke (pond) ya,
ka-wa-zu (frog) to-bi-ko-mu (jumping into)
mi-zu (water) no o-to (sound)

my two cents

old pond

leaping frog

splash!    (alternatively ripples*)

*perhaps better from an imagist viewpoint!
Copyright © | Year Posted 2019

Poem

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Dietrich Avatar
November 8, 2020 at 11:35 AM
This I just had to see. Cute translation!
Strand Avatar
November 8, 2020 at 12:15 PM
Yes,Andrea,it shows the translators impossible task with this form genre
Na Avatar
November 25, 2019 at 10:39 AM
Hi Brian thanks for sharing this. well done
Strand Avatar
November 25, 2019 at 10:49 AM
Cheers Greg
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