EN340 / IN350 Global Haiku Tradition
Dr. Randy Brooks • Spring 2005
Haiku Unit Plan Appendix 8

Appendix 8
Variations on the Frog Pond Haiku

Basho is perhaps best remembered for his haiku about a frog jumping into a pond. Over the years, numerous other haiku poets have both translated Basho's poem and written tributes to it themselves. Let's compare these different interpretations:

The Original:

The old pond -
A frog leaps in,
and a splash

Another Translation:

an old pond...
a frog leaps in,
the sound of water

Variations:

for the fat green frog
crouched on the log
time is flies
            George Swede

Paris pond
a frog Picassos
my face
            George Swede

frog pond -
a leaf falls in
without a sound
            Bernard Lionel Einbond

          o                   g
    r
f                                                            frog
            Marlene Mountain

   jumping in
and washing off an old poem -
   a frog
            Buson

©2005 Randy Brooks, Millikin University, Decatur, Illinois || all rights reserved for original authors