To Buson

by W. S. Merwin

I hope this little poem which came to me is—as I’m sure it is—a gift from Buson’s gentle spirit:

Peahi

Let the laughing thrush

sing the new morning like this

wherever I am

From Collected Haiku of Yosa Buson, translated by W. S. Merwin and Takako Lento, Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press, 2013, page vii. The preceding words serve as the book’s epigraph. The poem follows a 5-7-5 syllable pattern, so perhaps Merwin believed that was necessary for haiku in English, despite nearly none of the translations in this book following that pattern. The poem’s headnote refers to Peahi, on the north shore of Maui, Hawaii, where Merwin lived in the town of Haiku. Pe‘ahi (as it’s also spelled) is well known as the “Jaws” surfing mecca, but Merwin’s sympathies lie more with nature.