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The original

hana ibara / kokyō no michi ni / nitaru kana

That is the source, in romaji. It is printed here rather than kept in a footnote because the English above is machine-made, not a scholar’s, and you should be able to check it against something rather than take it on trust.

The rendering follows the sense rather than forcing 5-7-5. Japanese counts on rather than syllables, and the two do not line up; padding a translation out to fit the English shape is how you end up with a poem the poet did not write.

Yosa Buson 1716–1784

A professional painter as well as a poet, and it shows: his verses tend to compose like pictures, with a foreground, a distance and a deliberate use of colour. He led the revival of Bashō’s style a generation after it had fallen out of fashion.

10 more from Buson

• Resting on the temple bell, / and glowing — / a firefly.
• The summer rains, / and facing the great river, / two houses.
• Willow leaves fallen, / the clear stream gone dry, / stones here and there.
• The moon at its height, / and I pass through / a poor part of town.
• Setting the axe in — / startled by the scent. / Winter grove.
• The peony scattered: / two petals lying / across three petals.
• So it has come to this — / white plum blossoms, / and the night turning to dawn.
• Spring rain, / and off down the road they go, talking — / straw hat and raincoat.
• Evening wind — / the water laps / the blue heron's legs.
• The pond and the river / have become one thing: / spring rain.

Why this is here at all

HaikuMail is a Chrome extension that hides your inbox behind a search-only reader, and holds the first thirty seconds with a poem. This is one of the 157 it draws from. That is the rest of the story.