Saturday, January 15, 2011

Review: One Hundred Famous Haiku ed. and trans by Daniel C. Buchanan


Synopsis: A collection of 100 Haiku from various poets, ranging from the 1500-1900s. Each is written in the original Japanese script, the Japanese in Arabic script and the English translation. With each is a short paragraph about the poet, the meaning of the poem, symbolism or tradition. They are arranged in 4 chapters, each after a season.

Roughts: This is an excellent introduction to the best of the Haiku. As someone who has very little exposure to the form, I enjoyed the overview, the wide variety of poets and the accompanying explanation. I have added several names to my list of poets to read from this book. My favorite was by a female poet named Chiyojo:

Dragonfly catcher
How far have you gone today
in your wanderings?

Bookmarks: 8 of 10

Awards: None

Date Completed: 1-15-2011
Pages: 120

No comments:

Post a Comment