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VII.  Book Reviews: Haiku Harvest
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_Haiku Harvest_
Japanese Haiku, Series IV
Translation by Peter Beilenson and Harry Behn
Decorations by Jeff Hill
Mount Vernon, NY: The Peter Pauper Press, 1962
reviewed by Bill Blohm   (bblohm@hpbs1686.boi.hp.com)

Intended for the general haiku reader, this little book (4.325" x
7.5") comprises 61 pages of haiku by the old masters translated
into English. Each page contains four haiku, with "decorations"
(two-color pen drawings) on the outer edges that sometimes
correspond to a verse on that page. The masters featured are
Basho, Buson, Issa, Shiki, and others.

This book would have been the fourth in a series compiled by
Beilenson. As Harry Behn wrote in the Foreword, "This should have
been Peter Beilenson's book. He had just come to Basho's joyous
shout about bringing a snowball in by the fire, when he died."
Behn was asked to complete the book,  translating the remaining
haiku according to the method that Beilenson would use.

With over 600 haiku translations to his credit, Beilenson ranks
among the great admirers of the form, and this publication
reflects that.  This little book presents a wide range of haiku.
Some really moved me, some were amusing, and some seemed merely
to be sentences lined up to conform with the 5-7-5 rule.  One
finds examples of every Western translation style.  This book
does not attempt to follow the 5-7-5 rule exactly, however.
Rather, it attempts to present honestly what the compiler(s) felt
the Japanese poets might have written in English.

This is a book that is meant to be read time and time again, so
great is the range of haiku.  Depending upon my mood, at one time
a certain verse was merely words on a page to me; upon a later
reading, this same haiku came alive and was thoroughly enjoyable.

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