Bringing together the greatest Haiku poems and combining them with evocative imagery. This essential collection is the ultimate introduction to the art of Haiku. Classic Haiku contains a selection of about two hundred haiku by the four most celebrated haiku poets of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The texts presented will not be original translations, but versions arrived at through comparative use of literal and literary translations and of commentaries allowing for accessibility for the modern reader. The introduction offers background information about the poets in the anthology, and gives an account of the nature of haiku and its development in relation to Japanese poetic tradition.