English Translations of Haiku — Reading Bashō, Buson, Issa in English

150 Years of English Translation

The English translation of haiku begins with Basil Hall Chamberlain’s “Bashō and the Japanese Poetical Epigram” (1902). In the 120+ years since, hundreds of translators have carried Bashō, Buson, Issa, Kyoshi, and Shiki into English.

Overview article 17 (the internationalization of haiku) covered translation theory and difficulty. This article looks at the actual English translations side by side, seeing the techniques concretely.

Five famous verses are taken up below, each with three to five main translations for comparison.

1. Bashō: “Furuike ya / kawazu tobikomu / mizu no oto” (1686)

Japanese Original

古池や 蛙飛びこむ 水のおと (furuike ya / kawazu tobikomu / mizu no oto) 5-7-5 = 17 sounds; kigo: kawazu (spring); kireji: ya

Translation 1 — Basil Hall Chamberlain (1902)

The ancient pond! A frog leaps in; The sound of the water!

Feature: Two exclamation marks render the kireji ya and its lingering feeling. The contrast between “pond” and “water” is close to the original. Somewhat explanatory.

Translation 2 — R. H. Blyth (1949)

The old pond; A frog jumps in, — The sound of the water.

Feature: Three kinds of punctuation — semicolon, dash, period — render the cut. “Jumps” is more matter-of-fact than “leaps.”

Translation 3 — Harold G. Henderson (1958)

Old pond — frogs jumped in — sound of water.

Feature: Single line. “Frogs” (plural) — because Japanese is ambiguous on number.

Translation 4 — Robert Hass (1994)

The old pond — a frog jumps in, sound of water.

Feature: Opening dash to render the kireji. Modern and lucid. Hass is a former US Poet Laureate.

Translation 5 — Jane Reichhold (2013)

old pond a frog jumps in sound of water

Feature: All punctuation removed, no capitalization. The most modern style of English haiku.

Points of Comparison

• Treatment of the kireji ya: !, ;, —, (none) — four styles
• Number: a frog (singular) vs frogs (plural); the original is ambiguous
• Tense: jumps in / leaps in (present); past tense is not used
• Word order: all match the original (pond → frog → sound)

2. Bashō: “Natsukusa ya / tsuwamono-domo ga / yume no ato” (1689)

Japanese Original

夏草や 兵どもが 夢の跡 (natsukusa ya / tsuwamono-domo ga / yume no ato)

Translation 1 — R. H. Blyth (1949)

Ah! Summer grasses! All that remains Of the warriors’ dreams.

Feature: “Ah!” renders the kireji ya. “All that remains” paraphrases “yume no ato.” Slightly poetic.

Translation 2 — Donald Keene (1955)

Summer grasses — all that remains of ancient warriors’ dreams

Feature: Adds “ancient” to make the 500-year Hiraizumi history explicit. Explanatory but readable.

Translation 3 — Robert Hass (1994)

Summer grasses: all that remains of great soldiers’ imperial dreams.

Feature: “great soldiers’” and “imperial dreams” make the grandeur of Yoshitsune and the Northern Fujiwara explicit. Adds context for English-language readers.

Translation 4 — Sam Hamill (1998)

Summer grasses, all that remains of soldiers’ dreams.

Feature: Concise and lyrical. A pared-down version stripped of the additions of the Hass version.

Points of Comparison

• Translation of “tsuwamono”: warriors / soldiers — the nuance of “the soldiers of old”
• “Yume no ato”: “all that remains of dreams” — capturing the implication of “trace”
• Supplementing the historical context: ancient / great / imperial — how far to add

3. Bashō: “Shizukesa ya / iwa ni shimi-iru / semi no koe” (1689)

Japanese Original

閑さや 岩にしみ入る 蝉の声 (shizukesa ya / iwa ni shimi-iru / semi no koe)

Translation 1 — R. H. Blyth (1949)

Ah, the silence! Sinking into the rocks, The voice of the cicada.

Feature: “Ah, the silence!” for the kireji ya. “Sinking” is close to “shimi-iru.” “Voice” is literal but “song” reads more naturally in English.

Translation 2 — Donald Keene (1955)

How still it is! Stinging into the stones, the locusts’ trill.

Feature: “How still it is!” for the kireji. “Stinging into” is a variant rendering of “shimi-iru.” “Trill” is more musical than “voice.”

Translation 3 — Robert Hass (1994)

Stillness — the cries of the cicadas sink into the rocks.

Feature: Reordered so that “cries” become the subject of “sink.” “Rocks” is plural.

Translation 4 — Jane Reichhold (2013)

quietness soaking into the rocks a cicada’s cry

Feature: Three lines each stand independent, with the subject of the verbs left deliberately ambiguous. “Soaking” is close to “shimi-iru.”

Points of Comparison

• “Shizukesa”: silence / stillness / quietness — the coloring of quiet
• “Shimi-iru”: sinking / stinging / soaking — the choice of verb changes the world
• “Semi no koe”: voice / trill / cries / cry — the range of the cicada’s sound

“Shining into” vs “soaking into” vs “sinking into” — one verb changes whether the cicada’s voice unites with the rocks, pierces them, or permeates them. The subtlety of translation.

4. Bashō: “Samidare wo / atsumete hayashi / Mogamigawa” (1689)

Japanese Original

五月雨を あつめて早し 最上川 (samidare wo / atsumete hayashi / Mogamigawa)

Translation 1 — R. H. Blyth (1949)

Gathering all The rains of May, How swift is the Mogami River!

Feature: Reordered to put “the Mogami River” at the end for emphasis. “How swift!” renders the exclamation of “hayashi.”

Translation 2 — Robert Hass (1994)

Gathering the rains of summer — how swift it is! Mogami River.

Feature: Three-line division, emphasizing the middle-seven “hayashi.”

Translation 3 — Jane Reichhold (2013)

gathering summer rains swift the Mogami River

Feature: Verb, adjective, noun each on its own line. An extremely short English haiku.

5. Yosa Buson: “Na no hana ya / tsuki wa higashi ni / hi wa nishi ni” (c. 1774)

Japanese Original

菜の花や 月は東に 日は西に (na no hana ya / tsuki wa higashi ni / hi wa nishi ni)

Translation 1 — Robert Hass (1994)

Rape flowers the moon in the east the sun in the west.

Feature: A three-line parallel structure. “Rape” means the nanohana (rapeseed) plant, but because “rape” clashes with its other English meaning, modern translators sometimes use “mustard flowers” or “canola flowers.”

Translation 2 — William J. Higginson (1996)

field of mustard — the moon rising in the east, the sun setting in the west.

Feature: “Rising” and “setting” make the verbs explicit; explanatory but easy to read.

Translation 3 — Sam Hamill (1998)

A field of yellow flowers — the moon in the east the sun in the west.

Feature: “Yellow flowers” makes the color explicit, sidestepping the difficulty of translating “na no hana” into English.

Points of Comparison

• “Na no hana”: rape flowers / mustard / canola / yellow flowers — the largest cultural gap
• “East” and “west”: shared across versions
• Handling of the upper-five ya: — (dash) is dominant

6. Kobayashi Issa: “Yase-gaeru / makeru na Issa / kore ni ari”

Japanese Original

痩せ蛙 まけるな一茶 これにあり (yase-gaeru / makeru na Issa / kore ni ari)

Translation 1 — R. H. Blyth (1949)

Skinny frog, hang in there! Issa is here.

Feature: “Hang in there!” renders “makeru na” with an English colloquial expression.

Translation 2 — David G. Lanoue

(Note: Lanoue translated all c. 22,000 Issa verses and published them online)

Skinny frog, don’t give up. Issa’s here.

Feature: More casual English. Preserves Issa’s colloquial nature.

Translation 3 — Robert Hass (1994)

Skinny frog, don’t despair; Issa is here for you.

Feature: Adds “for you” to make explicit the relation between Issa and the frog.

Points of Comparison

• “Makeru na”: hang in there / don’t give up / don’t despair — the spirit of the spoken word
• “Kore ni ari”: Issa is here / Issa’s here — the declaration of presence

7. Kobayashi Issa: “Tsuyu no yo wa / tsuyu no yo nagara / sari nagara”

Japanese Original

露の世は 露の世ながら さりながら (tsuyu no yo wa / tsuyu no yo nagara / sari nagara)

A verse Issa composed when his daughter Sato died of smallpox (1819). Extremely heavy in content, but simple in expression.

Translation 1 — R. H. Blyth (1949)

The world of dew Is the world of dew, and yet, — And yet …

Feature: The ellipsis after “And yet …” leaves the lingering feeling. The repetition of “dew” matches the repetition in the original.

Translation 2 — Robert Hass (1994)

This world of dew is a world of dew, and yet, and yet …

Feature: Preserves the “a world of dew” and “and yet, and yet …” repetition rhythm.

Translation 3 — Sam Hamill (1998)

The world of dew is a world of dew, and yet, and yet …

Feature: Efforts made to approach the 5-7-5 syllable count.

Common Challenges of Translation

Common challenges seen through these examples:

1. 5-7-5 is Compromised

Most modern English translations do not strictly follow the 5-7-5 syllable count. English syllables and Japanese sounds differ in length; strict adherence produces verbose English. Reichhold, Hass and others freely make the verses shorter.

2. Kireji Rendered as Punctuation

“Ya” becomes !, ;, —, :, (none) — five approaches. There is no unified rule; each translator chooses by feel.

3. Singular / Plural and Articles are the Translator’s Choice

The ambiguity of singular/plural in Japanese is forced into a decision in English. This changes the nuance of the verse.

4. Extent of Cultural Supplement

“Tsuwamono-domo” → warriors / soldiers / ancient warriors / imperial soldiers — how far to supplement is the translator’s philosophy.

5. Difficulty of Noun Correspondences

“Na no hana,” “kiri,” “samidare,” “hototogisu” — Japanese-native plants and natural phenomena always present the trade-off between being explanatory or being poetic in English.

The Significance of Knowing the Translators’ Names

The translators above each hold their own translation philosophy:

• Chamberlain (1902): scholarly precision, explanatory
• R. H. Blyth (1949): emphasizes Zen Buddhist thought, in a four-volume opus
• Donald Keene (1955): general introduction to Japanese literature, standard English
• Harold G. Henderson (1958): attempts to bring the Japanese syllable count into English
• Robert Hass (1994): perspective of a modern American poet, Poet Laureate
• William Higginson (1996): editor of world haiku and kigo dictionaries
• Sam Hamill (1998): translator of Eastern poets, aimed at general readers
• David Lanoue: Issa specialist, translated all 22,000 verses online
• Jane Reichhold (2013): full English translation of Bashō, modern English haiku style

For the same single verse, each of these translators produces a different English haiku. Translation is not mere replacement but recreation.

Modern Translation Tools and AI

In the 2020s, haiku translations by DeepL, Google Translate, and ChatGPT have spread. Machine translation can produce a superficially “acceptable” version, but does not reach the cultural depth and poetic choices of a human translator.

Example: “Furuike ya” translated by DeepL:

An old pond, a frog jumps in, the sound of water.

Close to the Blyth or Hass rendering, but decisions such as why “pond,” why “this pond,” whether an article is needed at the head cannot be made by AI.

Modern translators are beginning to use AI for a draft to be revised by a human. This is a new stage in haiku translation.

Reverse Translation — English Haiku into Japanese

Growing in recent years is translating English haiku into Japanese. English haiku by Kerouac, Snyder, Reichhold and others are introduced in Japanese haiku journals. Example:

Jack Kerouac (1959):

Snow in my shoe Abandoned Sparrow’s nest

Japanese rendering (example):

靴に雪 打ち捨てられし 雀の巣

The English’s 3-2-4 = 9 sounds must be expanded into Japanese 5-7-5 = 17 sounds. This too is difficult.

Toward the Next Article

Bashō’s disciple Morikawa Kyoroku combined haikai with painting, a tradition that runs to Yosa Buson’s painterly haiku → his disciple Matsumura Gekkei (Goshun)’s Shijō school of painting. The next article traces the lineage of the fusion of haiku and painting — haiga. From Buson’s Ten Conveniences and Ten Suitabilities through Goshun’s Shijō school to modern haiga.