Haiku by Matsuo Munefusa
Reviewed by Brock D. on April 24, 2002
From time to time
The clouds give rest
To the moon beholders.

            These three poems are all haiku that were written by Matsuo Munefusa, also known as Matsuo Basho, a great poet from Japan. The first haiku which talks about the moon watchers refers to a Japanese custom known as tsukimi, or moon viewing, in which people would gather to honor and watch the moon. The poem says that on occasion the clouds would give rest to those who were watching the moon. In other words, every now and then clouds would pass in front of the moon giving the people a short rest. The second poem is told from the perspective of Basho during one of his many travels. In this poem Basho talks about the road that he is traveling, and about how deserted the road is on that autumn evening. The third and final haiku that I reviewed is the one that is the most depressing. The final poem is about the lost dreams of a fallen soldier, a soldier who died in battle. Here Basho is writing about a field he sees in which there are grasses. He says that these grasses are all that remains of the dreams of the warrior who fell there. So the warrior died there and the summer grasses are all that remain where his body fell. Matsuo Basho spent most of his life traveling around Japan and writing. This traveling and his separation from the world became known as the Hermitage of the Banana Plant. This isolation is the root of his pen name, Basho, since in Japanese it was called the Basho-an. Basho made one last trip to the place he was born near the end of his life, but near Osaka he became very sick. Shortly before his death he wrote his final poem, it was a haiku. I liked all three of these poems because they are all well done even well translated. In some of the other translations I have seen the poems loose their meaning and become a random jumble of words, but not in this translation. Since they are haiku I cannot really say I have a favorite or a least favorite part, so instead I will choose a favorite haiku and a least favorite haiku. My favorite haiku would be the third haiku. I like this haiku because it is not so obvious as the others. In this haiku you have to think about what he is talking about.  Of these haiku, and in fact any by Basho, I do not have a least favorite. Basho is truly a master of the art form haiku; I would recommend his works to any fan of poetry.

By Brock and Gabe
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