Classic Haiku

The scope ranges widely over time and place, from the "Upanishads" of ancient India to the words and images of Japan's ukiyo-e - the "floating world." The introductions, providing invaluable background on history, belief, and interpretation, are provided by thinkers, writers, and artists who are renowned for communicating accessibly and imaginatively. The translations used are in a thoroughly readable modern idiom. Accompanying images are chosen for their evocative appropriateness. "Classic Haiku" contains a selection of about two hundred haiku by the four most celebrated haiku poets of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The texts presented will not be original translations, but versions arrived at through comparative use of literal and literary translations and of commentaries. The introduction offers background information about the poets in the anthology, and gives an account of the nature of haiku and its development in relation to Japanese poetic tradition.