Member Poem

In the preface to this haiku, Basho refers to Matsushima, Japan, which overlooks many little islands of all kinds of shapes. Since ancient times, and even now, it’s considered one of the most beautiful places in Japan. It is located near Sendai, which was damaged during the tsunami this year, but the effect in Matsushima was not as bad because of all the islands breaking up the waves.

All the islands

Broken in a thousand pieces—

The sea of summer

Shima-jima ya

Chiji ni kudaki-te

Natsu no umi

Islands and

Thousands into breaking

Summer’s sea

Note:  the “々” character means to repeat the previous character, usually making it plural. In this haiku, it is used after the character for “island,” making it “island-island” or “islands,” and after “thousand,” making it “thousands”