Spring Basho
ON THE ROAD To NARA
Because of early spring, this nameless hill
Is knee-deep in the gauze of morning still.

Buson
THE SPRING SEA
All day, with gently undulating swell,
The spring sea rose and fell, and rose and fell...

Buson
UNFATHOMED
Without a sound, the white camellia fell
To sound the darkness of the deep stone well

Buson
SOWN WITH GOLD
How far these fields of rape in blossom run:
East to the moonrise, west to the setting sun!

Issa
ONE SENSE Of BEAUTY
On white plum-petals that were pure and sweet,
The Nightingale now wipes its muddy feet.

Shiki
SPRING CALM
The Inland sea at twilight: star by star,
The lamps shine out on islands, near and far

Shiki
AT THE FERRY
Through the spring rain a ferryboat is oared, paper
umbrellas, high and low, aboard.

Shiki
ROMANCE
Evening in spring: The fox's phantom played
A young and gallant prince in masquerade.

(written on the death of his son)

Chiyo
MORE THAN FORGIVENESS
Plum-blossoms give their fragrance still to him
Whose thoughtless hand has broken off their limb.

Ho-Ho
A MUSICAL EVENING
The geisha's pose is shadowed on the screen
Beside a willow sapling, fledged with green.

Ho-Ho
ASHELTER OF LEAVES
A sparrow, springing on this bamboo-cane,
Chirps at the downward sound of steady rain.

Ho-Ho

A sparrow, springing on this bamboo-cane,
Chirps at the downward sound of steady rain.

Onitsura

And so the spring buds burst, and so I gaze,
And so the blossoms fall, and so my days...

Hokushi
BURNT AWAY
Onto the ashes where my cottage burned,
The cherry-blossoms scatter, unconcerned.

Basho
Sensitive
The Butterfly, lifted on the spring wind's billow,
Alights elsewhere upon the swaying willow.

Anon
PRISONER CONDEMNED TO DEATH
Ah, nightingale, with half your song expressed,
I leave for the next world - to hear the rest

Oto
THE CATCH
I Shook my net where without whitebait seemed to thresh:
A shoal of moonbeams slithered through the mesh.

Issa
RETURN OF THE DISPOSSESSED
The same old village: here where i was born,
Every flower I touch - a hidden thorn.

Issa
BONDAGE
The caged bird gazes at the butterflies
Beyond the bars with longing - watch its eyes!