This piece sets flower haiku by the Japanese poet, Bashō, beautifully translated by Lucien Stryk.

Text:

Haiku poems of Bashō
Translated by Lucien Stryk

Come see
real flowers
of this painful world

Violets -
how precious on
a mountain path

Peony –
the bee can’t bear
to part

Orchid - breathing
incense into
butterfly’s wings

Travel-weary,
I seek lodging –
ah, wistaria

Rain-washed
camellia - as it
falls, showers

Irises blooming
from my feet -
sandals laced in blue

Morning-glory -
it, too,
turns from me

However close I look,
not a speck on
white chrysanthemum

Town merchants,
who will buy this hat
lacquered with snow?

© Lucian Stryk, 1985 –
by kind permission of Helen Stryk