The Penguin Book of HaikuFirst Penguin volume Of best Japanese haiku Vivid translations Now a global poetry, the haiku was originally a Japanese verse form that flourished from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Although renowned for its brevity, usually running over three lines in seventeen syllables, and by its use of natural imagery to make Zen like observations about reality, in fact, the haiku is much more it can be erotic, funny, crude and mischievous. Presenting