Basho: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Basho -- Basho

<b>This is the essential English edition of the complete poems of the eminent Japanese master of the haiku, Matsuo Bash&#333;.</b> <p/> Matsuo Bash&#333; (1644-1694) is arguably the greatest figure in the history of Japanese literature and the master of the haiku. <i>Bash&#333; The Complete Haiku </i><i>of Matsuo Bash&#333; </i>offers in English a full picture of the haiku of Bash&#333;, 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 Bash&#333;'s headnotes to poems ignored by previous English-language translators. <p/> In Fitzsimons' beautiful rendering, Bash&#333; 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. <p/> 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. <i>Bash&#333; The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Bash&#333; </i>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 Bash&#333; for the