Matsuo Basho, Lucien Stryk (Translator)

On Love and Barley

Haiku of Basho

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Summary

Basho, one of the greatest of Japanese poets and the master of haiku, was also a Buddhist monk and a life-long traveller. His poems combine 'karumi', or lightness of touch, with the Zen ideal of oneness with creation. Each poem evokes the natural world - the cherry blossom, the leaping frog, the summer moon or the winter snow - suggesting the smallness of human life in comparison to the vastness and drama of nature. Basho himself enjoyed solitude and a life free from possessions, and his haiku are the work of an observant eye and a meditative mind, uncluttered by materialism and alive to the beauty of the world around him.

About the author

Matsuo Basho

Matsuo Basho, the Japanese poet and diarist, was born in Iga-ueno near Kyoto in 1644. He began to write verse while studying as the companion of the son of the local lord, and continued to write when he moved to Edo (now Tokyo) in 1667. He eventually became a recluse, and on his travels relied on the hospitality of temples and fellow poets. His work was much influenced by Zen Buddhism.

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