Book of the Week: Haiku, Volume 3: Summer and Autumn
This book. by R.H Blyth, is the third of a four part comprehensive study of classical Japanese haiku. It contains many inspiring passages about the nature of haiku and one of these is: “The brevity of haiku is not something different from, but a part of the poetical life; it is not only a form of expression but a mode of living more immediately, more closely to life.” Some of the chapters are: Sky and Elements, Fields and Mountains, Gods and Buddhas and Birds and Beasts.
The voices of village people
Irrigating the fields;
The summer moon.— Buson
The change of clothes;
Spring, alas, has disappeared
Into the long chest.— Saikaku
All! Summer grasses!
All that remains
Of the warriors’ dreams.— Basho
You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library.
Do you have a chapbook published in 2015 or earlier that you would like featured as a Book of the Week? Contact us for details. Haiku featured in the Book of the Week Archive are selected by THF Digital Librarian Dan Campbell and are used with permission.
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Thank you – I know of Blyth yet have not read his work directly.