What luck!
The southern valley
Makes snow fragrant.


—Matsuo Basho (1644 - 1694)

Translated by Ryu Yotsuya. Used by permission. Originally published at Ryu's history of haiku site.

About the author: Basho (1644-1694) wrote and taught linked poetry to scores of disciples from Osaka and Kyoto north to the mountains of Dewa.

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published 22 March 2002
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Responses to the haiku for 22 March 2002 by Matsuo Basho (1644 - 1694)

  1.  
    bob richardson (orgbob at webtv dot net)
    2003-04-20 19:34:21
     

    master basho would have been disappointed by disciple yotsuya's interpretation

    it seems yotsuya took certain freedoms and liberties

    first line: made me suspicious
    what's luck got to do with it

    frankensteinian surgery is the outcome of basho's work, through his trying to emphasize nature's power in comparison to man's being tiny in the scheme of things in the universe(nature).

    basho's work is filled with caricatures, nonsense, confusion, love, and etc

    i sometimes say, there is order even in "random disorder".



    even being paradoxical isn't seen here, perhaps a bakery nearby


    thinking of other pieces by basho:

    the wind from mt fuji
    i put it on the fan
    here, the souvenir from edo

    or

    an autumn wind(actually "a", ha, one of my remakes)
    more white
    than the rocks in the rocky mountain

    or

    from all directions
    winds bring petals of cherry
    into the grebe lake


    diverse, huh, but two trains of thoughts
    present
    no luck was needed

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