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Synopsis:
1020 Haiku in Translation: The Heart of Basho, Buson and
Issa  features the most representative works of the three
greatest haiku poets, Basho, Buson, and Issa. Each of the
1020 haiku has been meticulously translated into a poetic
English form, while preserving the exact content and flow of
the original. Notes, focusing on the meaning of uncommon
words, geographical features, historical information, and
cultural background have been provided to help
non-Japanese readers to more fully understand. Elegant
artwork and calligraphy appear throughout the book. 1020
Haiku in Translation: The Heart of Basho, Buson and Issa,
is a gateway to a new view of nature and life featuring many
haiku that have been translated into English for the first
time. It will appeal to all students of literature as well as
general readers.
Literary Masters, Inc.
Publicists for Short Stories, Books, Poems and Songs
                         Long Island, New York 11971
                                       
1020 Haiku
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1020 Haiku in Translation: The
Heart of Basho, Buson and Issa.
The gentle natures of the old haiku masters.  Dec 08, 2006. Poetry, it
is said, is what disappears in translation. This may often be true, for
patterns of rhythm and sound in a poem can seldom be carried over
into another language, even if the translator be a poet. Happily, this is
not a problem in _1020 Haiku in Translation: The Heart of Basho,
Buson and Issa. Translated by Takafumi Saito and William R.
Nelson. Artwork by Munetaka Sakaguchi. The simple patterns of
everyday speech, and the utterances of things and places and feelings
are brief, yet in their simple imagery and emphasis, the poems offer
us at least sparks of awareness of the here-now presence in life, and at
best grant us a revelation, a brief kind of surprise, an overwhelming
openness. The poesy of Japanese haiku is preserved, not in the 5-7-5
pattern, but through strong-weak stress patterns. The Japanese count
of seventeen syllables in three lines (5-7-5) is naturally rendered in
English differently, but still true to the original. Basho's famous frog
haiku becomes: "An old pond - / A frog dives in / Water sound."
*****--Jim Kulas