Lucien Stryk Bücher

By combining the ideals of karumi - lightness of touch - and oneness with nature, Bashō (1644-94) rose above the artificiality of previous haiku poets to become the master of the genre in his time. His exquisite compositions reflect the influence of Zen Buddhism and a life spent travelling, and reveal him to be an inspired perfectionist who sought to express himself in the purest possible form. These translations by Lucien Stryk are drawn from On Love and Barley, published in Penguin Classics.

This new collection of Lucien Stryk's original poetry and Zen translations contains a balanced selection from poetry written over a period of 40 years. It is nothing less than the summation of a lifetime's

Presents the poems that combine 'karumi', or lightness of touch, with the Zen ideal of oneness with creation and evoke the natural world - the cherry blossom, the leaping frog, the summer moon or the winter snow - suggesting the smallness of human life in comparison to the vastness and drama of nature.