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The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Bashō
Moments in Stillness
Reading Bashō: The Complete Haiku feels like stepping into a landscape both distant and familiar—where a butterfly’s shadow or the fragrance of flowers carried by the wind become a bridge across centuries. This softcover bilingual edition gathers every known poem by Japan’s most celebrated haiku master, accompanied by an illuminating introduction by translator Andrew Fitzsimmons.
As Fitzsimmons points out in his insightful introduction, Japanese haiku was not a solitary pursuit but a communal art—many of Bashō’s verses were composed as greetings, farewells, or tokens of friendship. Even his name, Bashō (banana plant), was a gift from a friend.
I discovered this collection while studying Japanese and preparing for a stay in Japan. Having long admired the Tang poets of China, I was struck by how Bashō’s brief poems—like “A lone butterfly / aflutter over a field / over its shadow”—connect us, across language and time, through the delicate noticing of the natural world.
Details
Softcover, bilingual edition (Japanese–English)
University of California Press, 2022
This is the essential English edition of the complete poems of the eminent Japanese master of the haiku, Matsuo Bashō.
Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694) is arguably the greatest figure in the history of Japanese literature and the master of the haiku. Bashō: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Bashō offers in English a full picture of the haiku of Bashō, 980 poems in all. Andrew Fitzsimons’ translation is the first to adhere strictly to form: all of the poems are translated following the syllabic count of the originals. This book also translates a number of Bashō’s headnotes to poems ignored by previous English-language translators.
In Fitzsimons’ beautiful rendering, Bashō is much more than a philosopher of the natural world and the leading exponent of a refined Japanese sensibility. He is also a poet of queer love and eroticism; of the city as well as the country, the indoors and the outdoors, travel and staying put; of lonesomeness as well as the desire to be alone.
His poetry explores the full range of social experience in Edo Japan as he moved among friends and followers high and low, the elite and the demi-monde, the less fortunate: poor farmers, abandoned children, disregarded elders. Bashō: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Bashō reveals how this work speaks to our concerns today as much as it captures a Japan emerging from the Middle Ages. For dedicated scholars and those coming upon Bashō for the first time, Fitzsimons’ elegant translation—with an insightful introduction and helpful notes—allows readers to enjoy these works in all their glory.
About the Author and Translator
Bashō (1644–1694) is the greatest poet of Japan and one of the major figures of World Literature. His work has inspired haiku to become the most popular poetic form in the world.
Andrew Fitzsimons is Professor of English Language and Cultures at Gakushuin University, Tokyo, and author of The Sea of Disappointment: Thomas Kinsella’s Pursuit of the Real, as well as three books of poetry.
Details
Price: $17.95 / £14.99
Publication Date: Oct 2022
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 472
ISBN: 9780520385580
Trim Size: 5 x 7.75
Moments in Stillness
Reading Bashō: The Complete Haiku feels like stepping into a landscape both distant and familiar—where a butterfly’s shadow or the fragrance of flowers carried by the wind become a bridge across centuries. This softcover bilingual edition gathers every known poem by Japan’s most celebrated haiku master, accompanied by an illuminating introduction by translator Andrew Fitzsimmons.
As Fitzsimmons points out in his insightful introduction, Japanese haiku was not a solitary pursuit but a communal art—many of Bashō’s verses were composed as greetings, farewells, or tokens of friendship. Even his name, Bashō (banana plant), was a gift from a friend.
I discovered this collection while studying Japanese and preparing for a stay in Japan. Having long admired the Tang poets of China, I was struck by how Bashō’s brief poems—like “A lone butterfly / aflutter over a field / over its shadow”—connect us, across language and time, through the delicate noticing of the natural world.
Details
Softcover, bilingual edition (Japanese–English)
University of California Press, 2022
This is the essential English edition of the complete poems of the eminent Japanese master of the haiku, Matsuo Bashō.
Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694) is arguably the greatest figure in the history of Japanese literature and the master of the haiku. Bashō: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Bashō offers in English a full picture of the haiku of Bashō, 980 poems in all. Andrew Fitzsimons’ translation is the first to adhere strictly to form: all of the poems are translated following the syllabic count of the originals. This book also translates a number of Bashō’s headnotes to poems ignored by previous English-language translators.
In Fitzsimons’ beautiful rendering, Bashō is much more than a philosopher of the natural world and the leading exponent of a refined Japanese sensibility. He is also a poet of queer love and eroticism; of the city as well as the country, the indoors and the outdoors, travel and staying put; of lonesomeness as well as the desire to be alone.
His poetry explores the full range of social experience in Edo Japan as he moved among friends and followers high and low, the elite and the demi-monde, the less fortunate: poor farmers, abandoned children, disregarded elders. Bashō: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Bashō reveals how this work speaks to our concerns today as much as it captures a Japan emerging from the Middle Ages. For dedicated scholars and those coming upon Bashō for the first time, Fitzsimons’ elegant translation—with an insightful introduction and helpful notes—allows readers to enjoy these works in all their glory.
About the Author and Translator
Bashō (1644–1694) is the greatest poet of Japan and one of the major figures of World Literature. His work has inspired haiku to become the most popular poetic form in the world.
Andrew Fitzsimons is Professor of English Language and Cultures at Gakushuin University, Tokyo, and author of The Sea of Disappointment: Thomas Kinsella’s Pursuit of the Real, as well as three books of poetry.
Details
Price: $17.95 / £14.99
Publication Date: Oct 2022
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 472
ISBN: 9780520385580
Trim Size: 5 x 7.75