Japanese Original:
neko no koi yamu toki neya no oboro zuki
English Translation
cats in love
when they stop in my bedroom
a hazy moon
On Love and Barley: Haiku of Basho, 1985
Basho
Commentary: On the surface, there is nothing much going on in Basho's haiku: cats in love/when they stop in my bedroom/ a hazy moon (in the bedroom window). However, if one reads a complete stop at the middle of L2, "stop," then his haiku consists of two emotionally contrasting scenes: cats in love when they stop/in my bedroom (window) a hazy moon. This reading is tonally and psychologically different from the initial reading. This kind of ambiguity effectively adds layers of meaning and depth to the haiku.
And it might be interesting to do a thematic comparative reading of Basho's another (moody) cats haiku, which could be read as a prequel:
with my cat
the stray cat does it,
crying pitifully
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