Basho: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Basho (Collector's Ed

What a wonderful book. Now, that said, it’s important to make clear what this book actually is/does. The translation (in English) of each haiku is accompanied a syllabic transliteration of the original Japanese, (rendering of the texts of the haiku in the original Japanese occur in the back of the book. Perhaps more importantly, accompanying each haiku are footnotes explaining the important (and sometimes quite extensive) wordplay that occurs in the haiku. It’s important to note that such wordplay is a crucial characteristic of all classical Japanese haiku. This is not true of English-language haiku of course, and is —virtually by definition— impossible to portray in translation. So these footnotes are of great importance to anyone who is interested in seriously “drilling-down” into the details of what is actually happening in the original version the haiku. Finally, it’s probably worth noting that the translation that Fitzsimons gives of each haiku attempts to adhere to the classical 7/5/7 format whenever possible. So, in all fairness, I’d have to admit that these translations —while always very good— might not be the translations of Basho that I might choose to carry around in a convenient pocket-edition, nonetheless as an element of a critical/reference work they are invaluable. I guess that what I’m saying is that this volume might perhaps be more accurately be thought of as a kind of “reference work”. But, with its very affordable price, this is surely a book that everyone seriously interested in Haiku (or more specifically, in the work of Basho) should have on their shelf. (Note: In addition to a very good glossary and an extensive bibliography, the book also contains indices to the haiku in Japanese, Romanji, and English.)

I have been reading Basho, for a very long time, of all the translations I've read this is the best, love the inclusion of the literal translations along side the Japanese, even though I don't read or speak Japanese. This one is for scholars, readers, and beginners.

O livro é maravilhoso, mas foi entregue de maneira porca, uma vergonha. Chegou rasgando e sujo. Ridículo.

Genau wie ich es mir erhofft hatte. BASHO mit seinen Haiku. Auch Schreibweise der Kanji und Kana. Tolles Buch.

Andrew Fitzsimons has taken on an impossible task. Translation is, at best, crushingly hard, choices that must be made based on one's capability with a language, with the culture of that language and with the subtle, oftem deeply idiomatic use of that language by native speaker, perhaps even from centurys ago. Then they must decide, based on the language how to present the words and meanings in the best way to share the original purpose. This is especially hard with humor and subtle puns, cultural shifts in thought and phrase. Then they have to decide on what might represent that in the language being translated to. Unenviable and nearly impossible. Japanese is a wonderfully colorful language - whereas english is more structured and less inclined for the beauty of puns/alternate meanings, Dr Fitzsimons has a very good handle on this. He carefully lays out the moment of each hakko, giving a description of the meanings of words in japanese, and especially in the culturally subtle humor of the time. He puts each hakko in it's proper stage and helps the reader navigate the shifting meanings. This, is im my opinion, the finest translation of Basho, period. He gives you the whole meal and lets you choose to digest what you will.