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  • Published: 29 October 2019
  • ISBN: 9781611807004
  • Imprint: Shambhala
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 144
  • RRP: $29.99

The Pocket Haiku



A collection of classical Japanese haiku selected and translated by one of America's premier poet-translators.


Haiku may be the most popular and widely recognized poetic form in the world. In just three lines, a great haiku presents a crystalline moment of image, emotion, and awareness. In this collection of haiku, translator Sam Hamill has compiled the best of traditional Japanese poetry, with a particular focus on the three great masters: Bashō, Buson, and Issa. Based on images from nature, the poems address the themes of joy, temporality, beauty, wonder, loneliness, and loss.

  • Published: 29 October 2019
  • ISBN: 9781611807004
  • Imprint: Shambhala
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 144
  • RRP: $29.99

About the author

Sam Hamill

SAM HAMILL is the author of more than thirty books of poetry, essays, and translations from the classical Chinese and Japanese, ancient Greek, Latin, and other languages. He has been a recipient of fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission. He lives near Port Townsend, Washington.

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