Love Haiku: Japanese Poems of Yearning, Passion, and Remembrance »

Yoshie Ishibashi is a historical researcher, interviewer, and translator. She was the researcher and cotranslator of Chiyo-ni: Woman Haiku Master, which won the Award for Translation from the Haiku Society of America in 1998. A recipient of a Fulbright grant for graduate study, she is currently working on her master's thesis.

"Haiku is celebrated as a concise form of poetry capable of conveying a singular moment with great clarity. Haiku most often depicts the natural world, but when focused on the elements of love and sensuality, a haiku can also be a powerful vehicle for evoking the universal experience of love." In this anthology, love is explored through beautiful images that evoke a range of feelings - from the longing of a lover to the passion of a romantic relationship. Written by contemporary Japanese poets (many of whom are translated here for the first time) as well as by masters such as Basho, Buson, and Issa, these poems share not only the haiku poets' vision for love, but their vision of the poignant moments that mark love.