Monday, October 19, 2015

Daybreak

Daybreak, Asilomar State Park, September, 2012.


Tired of sleeping on a grass pillow
I went out on the beach while it was still dark:

Daybreak: a white fish is white, just an inch.

Basho, 1684

This version of a famous haiku is found in
From the Country of Eight Islands;
an anthology of Japanese Poetry,
edited and translated by Hiroaki Sato and 
Burton Watson, Doubleday, 1981, page 281.


Many of Basho's haiku, such as this one,
come with a short headnote or explanation of the setting.

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