Haiku: Basho and his School

These passed few days have been characterized by unrelenting rain. This has made me retreat like a hermit into my little cocoon. Being that it is May and spring rains are clearing everything away for summer I continue with the Haiku, that beautifully captures this time of the year. 

My hut, in spring:                            Yado no haru

true, there is nothing in it–              nanimo naki koso

there is Everything!                         nanimo are. 

–Yamaguchi Sodo (1642-1716)

There a beggar goes!                      Kojiki kana

Heaven and Earth he's wearing         Tenchi wo kitaru

for his summer clothes!                   natsugoromo.

Eaten by the cat!                             Neko ni kuwareshi wo

Perhaps the cricket's widow               semi no tsuma wa

is bewailing that.                             sudakuran.

–Enomoto Kikaku (1661-1707)

Basho Meeting Two Travelers, by Yoshitoshi Taiso. Source:
http://carmen-sterba.suite101.com/two-celebrities-in-the-land-of-poets-a375155

A reminder, again, that all these are taken from Donald Keene's Anthology of Japanese Literature and that these are translated either by him or other scholars, which he specifies in the book. 

Matsuo Basho. Artwork by Haigu artist Kuniharu Shimizu. Haigu is Haiku with artwork.
Source: http://seehaikuhere.blogspot.com/2011_08_01_archive.html 

I've chosen these three Haiku from poets of Matsuo Basho's school. Even though spring isn't specified or exemplified clearly in each verse, I find that they transmit the essence of the season. And the one of the cricket eaten by the cat I found it terribly endearing, oddly enough.