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Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy this one!
Review: There are several different translations of Basho's Narrow Road extant and without doubt this is the worst generally available. Dorothy Britten's translations of both the text and verse cloy terribly, and betray her shallow understanding of the form. Her translations of some of Basho's best haiku rhyme, which should be enough to put anyone off.If you want to buy a translation of this wonderful work, I recommend a different Kodansha publication -- the edition featuring Masayuki Miyata's breathtaking illustrations and Donald Keene's somewhat academic but still vastly superior translations. Don't buy this one!
Rating:
Summary: This translation is laughable!
Review: This is the worst translation of Basho that I have ever seen. She makes all the haiku rhyme!!! Ugh! I suppose in Lady Bouchier's idle mind that's how poetry should appear. Here's a quote: "Life itself is a journey; and as for those who spend their days upon the waters in ships and those who grow old leading horses, their very home is the open road." Now compare that to Sam Hamill's translation: "A lifetime adrift in a boat, or in old age leading a tired horse into the years, every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home." This book is embarrassing. Don't buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Can Haiku Be Translatable?
Review: We can find Basho almost everywhere in Japan. My hometown is close to the Tokaido-highway and easy to find stone monuments with Basho's haiku inscribed in it.
Dorothy Britton did fine job in the mission-impossible task of
translating Basho haiku into palpable English. I am not well versed in poetry so I do not know how great her translation is with respect to literal viewpoint. She created the method by which peculiarly styled Japanese poem is converted into that of rhyme based western poem. Her English translation is easy to understand so it could be enjoyed by huge number of people not limited to those highly educated. As a Japanese who usually reads this essay in archaic Japanese of 17th century, her translation is instrumental in understanding what difficult Japanese words mean.
As far as Haiku translation goes English language has huge disadvantages.
1: Deletion of subject is difficult while in old Japanese it is really common.
2: Phonetically Japanese and English is so different. For example, in Japanese, common English words such as STRIKE is
pronounced SU-TO-RIE-KU. In Englsih one syllabled but in Japanese phonetics it requires four syllables.
So as syllable based translation. Basho's haiku will be translated rather explanatory than its original Japanese form.
In conclusion, I think she did a great job as a translator and her translation quite natural. No wonder Kodansha International adopted her translation for Japanese English learners.
Recommended for wide range of Japanese culture appreciators.
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