Basho Complete Haiku
Basho - Spring Within the Old Year - Complete Haiku (1), 1662-1664
Basho - Sour rain on plums - Complete haiku (2), 1666-A
Basho - Bamboo under snow - Complete Haiku (3), 1666-B
Basho - A bashful moon - Complete Haiku (4), 1667
Basho - Blossoms on the waves - Complete Haiku (5): 1668-1672
Basho - Taros and harvest moon - Complete Haiku (6): Roundup of Early Poems
Basho - Chrysanthemum under sake cup - Complete Haiku (7), 1675-76
Basho and his Interpreters, Selected Hokku with Commentary, by Makoto Ueda (1992, Stanford U.P.);
Basho's Narrow Road, by Hiroaki Sato (1996, Stone Bridge Press);
Travel Writings, by Steven D. Carter (Hackett Pub., 2020)
Basho's Journey, The Literary Prose of Matsuo Basho, by David Landis Bamhill (2005, State University of New York);
Traces of Dreams, Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Basho, by Haruo Shirane (1998, Stanford U.P.);
Matsuo Basho Shu: Zen Hokku (Shogakkan, 1999)
My translations
I have tried to make literal translations (as far as possible) in plain English. I strive for comprehensibility rather than trying to create new poetry in English. Especially in Basho's early haiku, many of the puns defy translation, so the notes in which I try to explain them are important. In Japanese, haiku are written on one line, as one sentence (as Hiroaki Sato translates them), but most translators divide the poem into three lines, since the Japanese is also made up of three segments (5-7-5 syllables). However, after some experimentation, I decided to follow Sato Hiroaki. It may seem unfamiliar to some readers at first, but I agree with Sato that it is perfectly possible to have poems in English that consist of one line of text. And it is the closest thing to the original hokku. What I definitely don't do is try to transfer the 5-7-5 syllable count to English - I think that's nonsense, because a syllable in English is very different from a syllable in Japanese (English, like all European poetry, works with stress, not syllable count). There are some translators who think they should write in lines of 5-7-5 syllables in English, but the result is usually quite distorted - it makes no sense anyway.
Translations and Studies of Basho
Basho's Haiku, 2 vols, by Toshiharu Oseko (1990 & 1996, Maruzen).Basho and his Interpreters, Selected Hokku with Commentary, by Makoto Ueda (1992, Stanford U.P.);
Basho's Narrow Road, by Hiroaki Sato (1996, Stone Bridge Press);
Travel Writings, by Steven D. Carter (Hackett Pub., 2020)
Basho's Journey, The Literary Prose of Matsuo Basho, by David Landis Bamhill (2005, State University of New York);
Traces of Dreams, Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Basho, by Haruo Shirane (1998, Stanford U.P.);
Matsuo Basho Shu: Zen Hokku (Shogakkan, 1999)