On love and barley

It's surprisingly hard to read an eighty-page book composed simply of 253 three-line, seventeen-syllable poems. This is Basho's oeuvre, and it had a profound effect upon the world and all the Japanese poets who came after him.

A few favorites:

“From the heart
of the sweet peony,
a drunken bee.”

“In my new robe
this morning—
someone else.”

And, of course...

“Old pond,
leap-splash—
a frog.”