The Penguin Book of Haiku (Penguin Classics)

First Penguin volume
Of best Japanese haiku
Vivid translations
 
Now a global poetry, the haiku was originally a Japanese verse form that flourished from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Although renowned for its minimalism and brevity, usually running three lines in seventeen syllables, and by its use of natural imagery to make Zen-like observations about reality, in fact the haiku is much more: it can be erotic, funny, crude and mischievous. Presenting over a thousand exemplars in vivid and engaging translations by Adam L. Kern, this anthology offers an illuminating introduction to this widely celebrated, if misunderstood, art form.

• The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories (A Penguin Classics Hardcover)
• Book of Haikus (Penguin Poets)
• On Haiku
• The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches (Penguin Classics)
• One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each (Penguin Classics)
• The Complete Cold Mountain: Poems of the Legendary Hermit Hanshan
• Seeds From a Birch Tree: Writing Haiku and The Spiritual Journey
• Once and Forever: The Tales of Kenji Miyazawa (New York Review Books Classics)
• The Classic Tradition of Haiku: An Anthology (Dover Thrift Editions)
• Tales of Ise