An excellent gift and introduction to Haiku. Has the right amount of space and nice off-setting artwork.

Unfortunately, the loan expired before I had a chance to write the review. I would happy to review it if the publisher would re-approve it so that I can finish reading it.

This book made me realize again why I love haikus so much. Beautifully selected haikus with related and delightful pictures will make every reader smile. This edition will make an excellent gift who appreciate good art and haikus.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

sleeping spread-eagled
so refreshing
so lonely

Beauty is sometimes found in the simplest of things and this book of haiku poems demonstrates it. The collection has some of the most famous poets from Japan like Matsuo Basho, Yosa Buson, Kobayashi Issa, and Masaoka Shiki. Since this is a translation, the syllabus format gets lost a little, however, it still has the power to transmit a strong feeling to the reader.

settled on
the temple bell-
a sleeping butterfly

Sadly, I was unable to download this book in time before it was archived and this I was not able to either read or review it. My apologies.

A perfect coffee table book, for when you want to sit quietly and contemplate. There is a brief history of haiku at the beginning of this book, explaining how the poetry form came into being, along with a short bio of each of the four masters featured. The haiku are presented in kanji with furigana, romanized Japanese, and an English translation, allowing the reader to enjoy each poem in its original form. Each poem also has an accompanying artwork or photograph that captures the spirit of piece, adding to the enjoyment. This book is perfect for a lazy afternoon!

#HaikuIllustrated #NetGalley

I don't know what to say! I want to see this book in person!
I love the fact that the physical book would be published in a special way (with the traditional Chinese book bounding techniques), and I think that the layout of this book is just divine. It has both the English and the original Japanese on the pages (including furigana, which could be very helpful for learners of the Japanese language). This book has reminded me of my love for the traditional arts from Japan!
Oh, and the illustrations are definitely the reason I would buy this book!

This collection of poems turns out to be a pleasure to read. It is wonderful how they can express so much in so few words. The illustrations are beautiful and the reading was relaxing. I loved it.

A good selection of four poets with some sort of illustration to accompany it. Nice that there is the original Japanese text and the English text. One poem per page so there is white space.

A collection of translated haiku’s composed by four poets (who were all a major part of Haiku’s history)
Matsuo Bashō (1644 - 1694)
Yosa Buson (1716 - 1784)
Kobayashi Issa (1763 - 1828)
Masaoka Shiki (1867 - 1902)

I love the layout of this book! Each haiku has the Japanese kanji haiku on the right hand side and then on the main of the page, the Japanese haiku followed by the English translation. Along with this, each Haiku has its own illustration and each illustration is gorgeous.

This entire book flowed so easily that I just kept reading without realising I was flying through it.

Overall this is a stunning collection of Haiku’s and is something I can imagine being easy to go back to over & over in the future.

This book of haiku poetry contains the works of Matsuo Bashō, Yosa Buson, Kobayashi Issa and Masaoka Shiki. Published alongside some exquisite imagery, this book of haiku certainly gives you a peace of mind.

For those of you who don't know, haiku is a style of poetry that originated from Japan and has since become renowned worldwide. The structure of a haiku is seventeen syllables, that are broken down into lines of 5, 7, 5 syllables.

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I received a copy of this book from Netgalley. All my opinions are my own, unbiased views.

These haiku are so beautiful! I'm really glad I picked this book. The design is simply magnificent: gorgeous Japaneses style illustrations and poems in both English and Japanese (and even the kanji). This is my first time I'm reading haikus and I'm truly glad I chose this book to be the first one. Rating: 5/5 stars.

Haiku Illustrated presents the reader with haiku from four famous Japanese poets, Basho, Buson, Issa, and Shiki. Though the majority of them are probably known to most haiku lovers, the poets' works have been given new translations here by Hart Larrabee. This is a good thing both because some of his new translations are rather fresh and interesting but also because it gives the small collection a very cohesive feeling. What I mean by that is that they are somewhat stylistically similar, being translated by the same person.

Apart from the interesting new translations, the collection presents the haiku in a very beautiful and educational way. Beautiful because of the design where the left part of the page contains the three short lines that comprise each poem while the right side, a single uninterrupted line with the original in Japanese. The collection is also educational for there is also furigana (hiragana readings of the kanji) next to each of the kanji for those of the readers who cannot read kanji and transliteration for those of the readers who cannot read Japanese. This affords all lovers of haiku to come into contact with the rhythmical beauty of the original texts.

Yet, as beautiful the poems are, the collection falls short when it comes to what is supposedly its selling point, the illustrations. Almost everything about them just seems completely off. Whereas the poems have this underlying connection due to the single translator, the illustrations feel and look disjointed and random because they are made by a very large number of people from many different eras. There are woodblock prints followed by grainy photography and digital drawings that are made to look "Oriental" or "Fareastern" but do not. Though somewhat ugly, this might have been okay were the drawings good illustrations of the haiku they accompany. But they are not even in the slightest. What they are is just the most basic and literal depiction of the words written in the poems. This is problematic because apart from boring it misses one of the most important qualities of haiku, namely the fact that though depicting mundane situations, the poems actually go way beyond the words and create a very abstract and evocative feeling which itself fosters deep contemplation. Yet, the incredibly literal illustrations stop the reader from this process, chaining him to the dull material world, instead.

As much as I have enjoyed the selection, translation, and presentation of the poems, I think that Haiku Illustrated is ultimately a missed opportunity because of its bad and unimaginative illustrations.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Amber Books for providing me with an ARC of the book in return for my honest opinion.

Haiku is a great discovery for a classic forms poet, its not the first i have seen but imagery needs to be better worked to match feelings and written word

Many thanks to NetGalley and Amber Books Ltd for the free review copy in return for an unbiased review.

I've read Haiku for over a dozen years as an aid to mediation. The vivid imagery they evoke help draw me into an internal state, distancing the external distractions. Whether this is intentional or a vaguery of fate, the ebook displays the haiku on 1 page and the picture on the next. The imagery juxtaposition between my mental portraits the haiku painted and the actual images displayed are beautiful.

The book's illustrations work well on mt PC however given the nature of many of the images I suspect they wouldn't be clear on a kindle, though a kindle fire/iPad etc would work fine.

Haiku Illustrated
Classic Japanese Short Poems
by Hart Larrabee [tr], Basho, Buson, Issa, Shiki

When we read poetry, we shall never read it through one perspective. Poetry isn't accountable for one's beliefs and stagnancy of beliefs, it is not a place to worship or shred off one's ego boundaries. It is not something to please, it is something that has been living and will live to express. Humans can either express themselves through poetry or conceal themselves through the same. It works one way at times, and few times both ways. You decide your poetry. You and you solely.
— Tiyasha Chaudhury

I have not read Haikus, I did not know the history, who birthed the type, who saw meaning in poems carrying seventeen syllables. Sounds vague, challenging but vague. I decided to read with being conscious, with having a space only to be shared with words printed and words I read, and I did my part. Solely was I when I said I was reading, but I wasn't when I was imagining about the things I was reading. I could see how Basho was so lonely that it almost felt beautiful. I know, it isn't appropriate to consider someone's loneliness beautiful but in the way these Haikus are written they show that the one magic the Japanese knew about life was nothing but 'living'.

There's serendipity in simplicity and there's layers of depth in just a few words. There's no measurement of depth in poetry, shouldn't be. It is unethical to measure anything that comes out of someone's mind, someone's heart—it is and shall always be important yet invaluable. The four poets show that everything they have captured is not a snapshot of the world they lived in, or the way they wrote them was not to please but just to be read. Reading is holy, so reading someone's poetry is sacred too. Hence, no matter how art is being adjectified the construction is holy because everything that is created is so.

I have not felt something so strong yet so simple hit me so hard, something so important that I had not known since long—when you read, you read from complete will and concentrate. So utmost that you're not in a room, or a volumes cubicle place thinking about what it should be inside the text—but, when you read, you're in the text, in your imagination of it, in your interpretation of the text.

And if seventeen syllables' carrying poems taught me that, imagine how many of the beliefs you carry about poetry will be shattered and created anew. And how many new perspectives would you gain. Thank you @amberbooksltd for sending me a copy, truly grateful. 🌹

The strength of serene simplicity

This bilingual Japanese/English edition consist of a selection of 19 hokku/haiku from the quartet known as the four masters in the Japanese haiku tradition, Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694), Yosa Buson (1716-1784), Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828) and Masoaka Shiki (1867-1902).

The English translation is juxtaposed with both the Japanese original text and a phonetic transcription, accompanied by an artwork of photograph which more or less match with the theme of the poem. The presentation includes plenty of blank space, making the poems come into their own more.

The poems, attentive to time and space evoke intensity of experience in the small form. Images are drawn mostly from common life, a seasonal reference (kigo) essential to it, giving a sense of the human place in the cyclical movement of the world and of the exposure and vulnerability of humans and animals to the elements, echoing transience, contingence, acknowledging the place of suffering for humans and animals, moments of being which the poets meet with compassion, understanding and a whiff of humour (Issa).

Haiku is not about impressing with verbal virtuosity or about the ego of the poet. Its strength does not lie in complexity, but in letting the moment speak to the maximum, sharing with a minimum of words a sensation, feeling or sudden inspiration in which the reader is involved.

Surprise and amazement arise from observing nature. Birds, insects, weather elements that affect the landscape allow to express the emotion of the moment.

In the introduction the translator clarifies he didn’t attempt to strictly respect the traditional form of the haiku (the seventeen syllables arranged 5-7-5) as translating into seventeen English syllables usually means excessive wordiness.

Having received a digital copy from NetGalley, the delightful half an hour of serene simplicity, humour and beauty the collection offered felt well-spent. The book however is obviously meant to be read as a paper copy as a paper copy will probably do more justice to the visual and tactile experience created by the combination of Japanese calligraphy, the selection of suiting illustrations to pair with the poems and the use of traditional Chinese bookbinding techniques.

I was less enchanted by the mix of traditional and contemporary illustrations and photography which came across as slightly unequal and I missed attributions to time and artists, the picture credits mostly only giving information about the copyright holders.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the translator for granting me the chance to read an ARC of this book.

I loved the bilingual edition of these haikus, especially the fact that they included furigana! My Japanese student heart totally thrived reading this. This has definitely motivated me to read more haiku.

It was also really nice to have pictures and drawings almost next to every poem, it made reading the book much more interesting and fun, and since most of the images included were Japanese traditional paintings, or inspired by Japanese culture, it provided a more holistic experience of Japanese art.

I definitely would recommend it, even if you don't particularly love haiku. Just having an interest in Japan is enough for enjoying this book.

Such a soothing amalgam of words and illustration. Am intended read to understand some basics of scenery of japan. Wonderful read.
Thoroughly enjoyed it

This is a beautifully laid out book of Haikus by multiple poets. It has wonderful little Haikus, with gorgeous illustrations and timelines. Really wonderful, highly recommend