@sbwright @freehaiku
I’m not a complete authority but I actually think it was a bit the other way around.
As with the #HaroldStewart translation that you just posted, most of the early translations and haiku in English did not follow the 5-7-5 format.
#RHBlyth was probably the most influential translator of #haiku (four volumes, early to mid 1950s) and he did not do 5-7-5. #Blyth was the translation that #Ginsberg and #Kerouac had access to.
As to when, later, and why, 5-7-5 started to gain ascendancy . . . that is a fascinating question, but I don’t know the answer to it.

More like companions than books, this four volume set of Haiku. Lost count of the number of times I've read them.

Reginald Horace Blyth's translations are beautiful.

Sharp, concise, enlightening and entertainingly idiosyncratic commentary. He references classics, from many cultures and languages, liberally throughout. Passionate, scholarly, personal writing. That I continue to learn from Issa et al is due to Blyth.

What book(s) mean the most to you?

#haiku #RHBlyth #ILoveBooks #Issa

@nateshore
I love the minimalist translations from the Japanese by #LucienStryk. My first and favourite was #CageOfFireflies which looks like might be out of print (but available online secondhand). A few of his others still available new, and they’re good too.

Bird song –
a thin dust
on the piano.

Hajime (trans. Lucien Stryk)

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The holy grail (long out of print) is the four volumes of translations by #RHBlyth, often just referred to collectively as “Haiku” but each of the four individual volume has its own name. Hard to get and expensive. I pieced my set together over the space of a few years.

The kite’s droppings
Stuck
On the irises.

Buson (trans. R. H. Blyth)

#FreeHaiku @freehaiku

#7books

The #Weirdstone of Brisingamen – #AlanGarner

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#Alice in #Wonderland – #LewisCarroll

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#TheWormOuroboros – #EREddison

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The #HouseOnTheBorderlands – #WilliamHopeHodgson

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Confessions of a #JustifiedSinner – #JamesHogg

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The #RingsOfSaturn – #WGSebald

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#Haiku – #RHBlyth

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On sober reflection I’ve decided to swap out The Worm Ouroboros, for #Slaughterhouse5 – #Vonnegut

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#Garner #Carroll #Eddison #Hodgson #Hogg #Sebald #Blyth

I've used the metamorphogram process (crossing cyanotype with origami) for all sorts of things.

This one was inspired by a Basho haiku. The translation is by R.H. Blyth, who is one of my favourite authors. His books collating haiku are without parallel.

I folded paper into an origami leaf. It lived in that shape for about a week before it's memories were revealed.

#basho #haiku #RHBlyth #origami #metamorphogram #cyanotype #blueprint