(sent to Etsujin* at the recollection of last year’s journey)
The snow we two beheld –
Hath it come down again this year?
Matsuo Basho
* Etsujin, Basho’s favorite pupil.
Matsuo Basho (1644 – 1694) was the most famous Edo period poet and a haiku master.
To read more poems, click here.
In my dark winter lying ill
At last I ask
”How fares my neighbor”?
Matsuo Basho
Matsuo Basho (1644 – 1694) was the most famous Edo period poet and a haiku master.
To read more poems, click here.
The quails are chirping in the dusk
Aware the hawks’ eyes are now dim.
Matsuo Basho
Matsuo Basho (1644 – 1694) was the most famous Edo period poet and a haiku master.
To read more poems, click here.
How noble he who realizes not,
From lightning-flashes, life is wain!
Matsuo Basho
Matsuo Basho (1644 – 1694) was the most famous Edo period poet and a haiku master.
To read more poems, click here.
The chanting of the prayers fills
The field and mountain with cool air.
Mukai Kyorai
Mukai Kyorai (1651 – 1704) was a Japanese poet of the early Tokugawa period (1603–1867) and one of the first disciples of the haiku master Matsuo Bashō.
To read more poems, click here.
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,
But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.
Robert Frost
Robert Frost (1874 – 1963), American poet and winner of four Pulitzer Prizes, is most known for The Road Not Taken (a poem often read the graduation ceremonies), Fire and Ice, Mending Wall, Nothing Gold Can Stay, and Home Burial.
To read more poems by Robert Frost, click here.
The moon of this night makes
All fields and mountains bald.
Hattori Ransetsu
Hattori Ransetsu (1654 – 1707) was a samurai, a haiku poet, and a follower of Matsuo Basho. He was very dedicated to Basho, and after the master’s death, he took the tonsure and became a monk.
To read more poems, click here.
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of midday to objects below,
When what to my wondering eyes did appear,
But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment he must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”
As leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the housetop the coursers they flew
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too—
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly
That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight—
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”
Clement Clarke Moore, A Visit from St Nicholas (more commonly known as ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas).
Clement Clarke Moore (1779 – 1863) was an American writer, a Hebrew scholar, and a teacher at the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in New York City.
I wish you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful day with family and friends!
’Tis the first snow! Who is likely
To stay indoors?
Takarai Kikaku
Takarai Kikaku (1661 – 1707) was a Japanese poet and among the most accomplished disciples of Matsuo Bashō.
To read more poems, click here.
We took rest on a mountain pass
Even above the soaring lark.
by Matsuo Basho
Matsuo Basho (1644 – 1694) was the most famous Edo period poet and a haiku master.
To read more poems, click here.
