The Four Seasons

Step into a series of dazzling, funny, melancholy, and joyous moments with this collection of haiku masterworks. Beloved translator Peter Beilenson’s goals were to craft a book of haiku accessible to anyone, and to render his best guess at what the poets would have written in English. His translations preserve the sublime spirit of each verse, conjuring vivid visual and emotional impressions in spare words. Haiku icon Basho is represented amply here, as are imagery-virtuoso Buson and wry, warm, painfully human Issa. The verses of Shiki, Joso, Kyorai, Kikaku, Chora, Gyodai, Kakei, Izen, and others also appear, all illuminated by lovely woodblock prints. Filled with witty surprises (Hazy ponded moon/And pale night sky are broken…/Bungling black frog –Buson), fond musings (Rainy afternoon…/Little daughter, you will never/Teach that cat to dance –Issa), and pensive marveling (Here is the dark tree/Denuded now of leafage…/But a million stars –Shiki), this collection will stir your senses and your heart. Mount Vernon, Peter Pauper Press, 1958. Edited by Peter Beilenson. Illustrated by Marian Morton. First edition thus. 61 pp. Hardcover in dust jacket. A collection of English language translations of Japanese poetry by Basho, Buson, Issa, Shiki and others. It is the second volume in the Peter Pauper Press's Japanese haiku series. The Peter Pauper press is a private press that was founded in the spirit of making fine, handsome books "at prices even a pauper could afford." Peter Beilenson and his wife Edna Beilenson were the co-owners of Peter Pauper Press.