Matsuo Basho - translations

Pond – frog jumps-in – ancient splash

Translation by K. A. Gulias

On a withered branch

A crow has alighted:

Nightfall in autumn.

Translation by Donald Keene

Moonlight slanting

through the bamboo grove;

a cuckoo crying.

Translation by Robert Hass

or

Moonlight seeps-through  – long bamboo grove – cuckoo's cry

Translation by K. A. Gulias

Lightening  – 

Heron's cry

Stabs darkness

Translation by Lucien Stryk

So still . . .

into the rocks it pierces,

the cicada-shrill.

Translation by Harold G. Henderson

or

loneliness--

seeping into the rocks,

cicada's cry

Translation by Barnhill

or


Still-ness – in temple rocks – cicada’s trill

Translation by K. A. Gulias