Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) is widely acknowledged as the greatest of all the Japanese haiku poets. In the original Japanese, the two defining features of the haiku form are its 5-7-5 sound unit format (the syllable being the corresponding unit in English) and its rhythm. This selection of three hundred of Basho's finest haiku represents the first successful strict translation into English haiku of what was actually written, some 350 years ago, by a genius of the form. The renditions are beautiful; the crucial cadences are retained.
Author Biography
Professor John White is an art historian, former Vice-Provost of University College London, and the author of a number of books on Medieval and Renaissance art. He is also a poet, and Trustee and Honorary Secretary of the Three Wheels Shin Buddhist Temple in London. Professor Kemmyo Taira Sato is Director of the Three Wheels Shin Buddhist Temple in London, and Visiting Professor at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies.
