Mizuta Masahide

Mizuta Masahide (水田 正秀, 1657–1723) was a seventeenth-century (Edo period) Japanese poet and samurai who studied under Matsuo Bashō.

Masahide practiced medicine in Zeze and led a group of poets who built the Mumyō Hut.^[1][2]

Examples

Barn's burnt down

Barn's burnt down --
now
I can see the moon.

Alternate translation:^[3]

Since my house burned down
I now own a better view
of the rising moon

When bird passes on

When bird passes on --
like moon,
a friend to water.

Masahide's Death Poem

while I walk on
the moon keeps pace beside me:
friend in the water

References

1. Ueda, Makoto. "Basho and His Interpreters." Stanford University Press. 1995. 342. Retrieved on April 14, 2009.
2. http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/M/Masahide/index.htm
3. http://docs.rwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=rr