UC Press is sharing harvest moon haiku in celebration of the Harvest Moon Festival and the forthcoming Bashō: The Complete Haiku of Matsuo Bashō, which offers 980 poems in English. 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 includes a number of Bashō’s headnotes.
46
The life source and seed
the sprouting taro again
the mid-autumn moon
inochi koso / imodane yo mata / kyō no tsuki
82
Gazing at the sawn
end of a freshly felled tree
Tonight’s harvest moon
ki o kirite / motokuchi miru ya / kyō no tsuki
570
The Fifteenth, as the innkeeper had predicted, it rained
The Harvest Moon night
the weather in the northlands
unpredictable
meigetsu ya / hokkoku biyori / sadamenaki
810
Zansho
The summer has spread
its heat to the Harvest Moon
An airish evening
natsu kakete / meigetsu atsuki / suzumi kana