Three Buson Haiku

First published in Haidan (Japan) #2, February 2016, pages 162–163. These poems were selected from more than 200 previously unknown haiku by Buson that were discovered in 2015, and the following may have been their very first translation into English.

translated by Emiko Miyashita and Michael Dylan Welch



蜻吟や眼鏡をかけて飛歩行

kagerō ya menage o kakete tobiaruki


flying around

with his glasses on

a dragonfly



我焼し野に驚くや艸の花

ware yakishi no ni odoroku ya kusa no hana


in my burnt field

the surprise

of grass flowers



傘も化けて目のある月夜哉

kasa mo bakete me no aru tsukiyo kana


my umbrella, too

becomes a one-eyed monster

this moonlit night