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Article: The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa.
- Article from:
- Chicago Review
- Article date:
- January 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 University of Chicago. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By strict count, Sun Under Wood is Robert Hass's fourth book of poetry. The translations in The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Busan, and Issa, however, must by anyone's standard be considered remarkable poetic achievements in themselves, comparable - in terms of sheer written fluency - to the best poems in his three previous books: Field Guide (1973), Praise (1979), and Human Wishes (1989):
It's not like anything they compare it to - the summer moon.
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Critics say it is difficult to judge the quality of English verse translation when one doesn't know the original language. This is a potentially arrogant statement, since it verges on implying ...