Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) raised the haiku from a transient pastime to an enduring literary genre. He was among the first to make the haiku a vehicle for feeling, an expression of comprehension.
But just what is a haiku? This new collection of translations gives some definitions, although the best, I find, is still that of the literary critic and teacher, Makoto Ueda: "What is haiku? Basic to all seems to be an internal comparison, a comparison between the finite and the infinite which are brought together in one experience, which is the poem."
Basho, depending upon which complete edition you refer to, wrote about 980 haiku, most of them seeming to successfully compare finite with infinite. In this new collection by Landis Barnhill 724 plus some variants are included, making it the largest selection now in print. These are arranged chronologically when possible rather than seasonally, as is more usual, so that a maturing of the poet's style may be inferred.