Haiku and tanka books
Haiku and tanka books to start from. Open one to see books like it, or tell BookSense what you loved for four picks made for you.
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New to the genre? These 5 are the books to read first.
Haiku
Reginald Horace BlythEarly large-scale English study and translation of haiku, shaping how many Western readers first met the form.
The Japanese Haiku
Kenneth YasudaTranslations with commentary that introduced many classical haiku to English readers in the 1950s.
An Introduction to Haiku
Harold Gould HendersonSurvey of haiku history and technique, aimed at readers coming to the form from English poetry.
A Few Flies and I
Kobayashi, IssaTranslated selection of Issa's haiku, known for plain, humorous and tender treatment of everyday life and small creatures.
One Hundred Frogs
Hiroaki SatoStudy of haiku in English through translations and versions of a famous frog poem and its many responses.
Chosen and described with AI from our notes on the genre.
More haiku and tanka books
- The Haiku Handbook
The Haiku HandbookWilliam J. Higginson - Japanese Death Poems =
Japanese Death Poems =Yoel Hoffmann - The Sound of the Mountain
The Sound of the MountainYasunari Kawabata1954 - The essential haiku
The essential haikuRobert Hass1994 - The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches
The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel SketchesBasho Matsuo1966 - One leaf rides the wind
One leaf rides the windCeleste Davidson Mannis2002 - In the eyes of the cat
In the eyes of the catDemi1992 - The peculiar life of a lonely postman
The peculiar life of a lonely postmanDenis Thériault2014 - The Haiku Anthology
The Haiku AnthologyCor Van Den Heuvel1986 - If not for the cat
If not for the catJack Prelutsky2004 - Cricket never does
Cricket never doesMyra Cohn Livingston1997 - Inch by inch
Inch by inchIssa Kobayashi1999