BD. Edmund Blunden

75. [Blunden]. ‘Japanese Poetry’. Review of Haiku, vol. 1 and Senryu: Japanese Satirical Verse, translated by R. H. Blyth, and Songs for Children Sung in Japan, by Y. Uehara. TLS, 3 March 1950, p. 138.

Blunden writes that Blyth (Ap) ‘knows the Far East in life, art and letters in a way attainable by few’. His translations and explanations of haiku are both ‘thoughtful’ and ‘truthful’, and the volume of senryû ‘at once stands as an original authority’. Uehara’s work receives passing praise. Includes reference to the three haikai poets often accounted the greatest in the tradition, Bashô (Ap), Buson (Ap), and Issa (Ap).