Some of the Best Japanese Haiku
One of the most famous historic haiku of Japan:
When Matsuo Basyo heard a sound a frog made when it jumped into an old pond surrounded by sheer quietness of a forest, he wrote:
At an old sleeeping pond
an unforeseen frog made a sound
as suddenly for eternity it jumped.
(Furuike ya, Kawazu tobikomu, Mizu no oto)
Matsuo Basyo (1644-1694) was one of the most popular poets in the samurai era.
Matsuo Bashō was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as the greatest master of haiku (at the time called hokku). His poetry is internationally renowned, and in Japan many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Although Bashō is justifiably famous in the west for his hokku, he himself believed his best work lay in leading and participating in renku. He is quoted as saying, "Many of my followers can write hokku as well as I can. Where I show who I really am is in linking haikai verses."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsuo_Bash%C5%8D
Other most famous historic haiku of Japan:
When Shiki Masaoka was eating Japanese persimmons in the precincts of historic Horyu-ji Temple, he suddenly heard a large bell of the temple starting to ring under the autumn blue sky. (Shiki, traveling in an old Buddhist town, thought he had by now to write a letter to a friend, asking for money.)
A poor man is luckily eating temple fruit;
then an overhung bell responds fully
to Horyu-ji autumn persimmons so awfully.
(Kaki kueba, Kane wa narunari, Horyu-ji
Note: "Kane wa narunai" literally means that a bell has rung, but it is similar to the sound of "Kane wa nakunari" meaning that I have lost money.)
Masaoka Shiki (1867 – 1902) was a Japanese poet, author, and literary critic in Meiji period Japan. Shiki is regarded as a major figure in the development of modern haiku poetry.[5] He also wrote on reform of tanka poetry.[6]
Some consider Shiki to be one of the four great haiku masters, the others being Matsuo Bashō, Yosa Buson, and Kobayashi Issa.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaoka_Shiki
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Taking off with controlled power
at a certain specified hour
it never minds whose tour, at all.
