A Net of Fireflies: Japanese Haiku and Haiku Paintings

Rating:
Summary: Standing at Customs (5 syllables) . . .
Review: I have owned a copy of this book since before I left High School, so long ago. I possess a cloth bound 1st Edition from 1960, with full color illustrations. Many are jealous. Every girlfreind I have ever had, has sprayed a touch of her perfume on a single page, and this was for the admiration and love that I have for this book. And for the memories of my life. The translations of the Haiku, I beleive are the best ever done - of any Haiku, hands down. Harold Stewart may not have been aware of his powerful contribution when he put this out. I have carried this book to every corner of the world and accidentally abandoned it in a hotel in Nome, Alaska. I flew back up for it later. I left it in a rental car in Felixstowe, England. Again, I returned for it. This book has saved my life many times over and has helped me through many dark moments.

Rating:
Summary: A gentle, lost friend.
Review: There is a small, gaping hole on my bookshelves through which my soul is slowly ebbing away, since I foolishly loaned a copy of Harold Stewart's book of Haiku poetry, A Net of Fireflies, to a student. The gentleness of a lifetime's truths, contained within its beautifully crafted pages, has been an inspiration for many years. The history and explaination of this, the gentlest of poetic forms, is complete in every detail. A book for study, of quiet moments, of loss and sadness; it journeys through the four seasons as inevitably as a life journeys between the washing bowls at birth and death. A book of elloquent peace and harmony. I lookforward to renewing my aquaintance................ The gentlest of travellers is waiting yet, where the light of the fireflies remains in the net.

Rating:
Summary: The beauty of haiku utterly lost in translation
Review: When I finally got my hands on this book I could hardly wait to open it. When I did open it, it was like biting into a rotten apple. The "translations" turned these beautiful poetic gems into cute little rhymes. The haiku paintings are quite lovely but the book is a tragic misunderstanding of haiku poetry. Please do yourself a favor and buy a copy of Issa's "The Spring Of My Life & Selected Haiku" translated by Sam Hamill.