Mosquito at my ear—
does he think
I’m deaf?

Kobayashi Issa

1763–1828

from The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa, edited and with an introduction by Robert Hass. Copyright 1994 by Robert Hass. Source: The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho Buson and Issa (The Ecco Press, 1994)
Photograph: Paul Conneally, Loughborough, 2015