When Someone Asked Me to Write a Haiku

by Buson

I am like that lowly young lady

who could not come up with a verse

as spring was going

From The Collected Haiku of Yosa Buson, translated by W. S. Merwin and Takako Lento, Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press, 2013, page 63. The “title” is actually a headnote to the poem, which is intended as a haiku.