"The Mogami River" by Matsuo Bashō

Text of the poem in Japanese:

Text of the poem transliterated:

Mogami-gawa

Atsuki hi wo
        Umi ni iretari
                         Mogami-gawa



English translation by R.H. Blyth:


The Mogami River
Has swept the burning Sun
Down into the Ocean.




Source of the text in Japanese [and transliteration]: Classic Haiku: An Anthology of Poems by Bashō and His Followers, translated and annotated by Asatarō Miyamori.  Mineola, NY: Dover, 2002, p. 104.

Source of the text as translated - Haiku, Volume III: Summer-Autumn, edited and translated by R.H. Blyth. Tokyo: Hokuseido, 1968, p. 83.

TJB: Who’d sweep a burning thing? This elegant image of a summer sunset is seen from a specific vantage point & conveys movement of river & sun.