Haiku,“Old Pond”

The most famous of Basho's haiku. The 'Furu Ike ya' (Old pond) haiku was composed in the spring of 1686 at the Basho hermitage. It describes a scene in which a frog is heard jumping into an old pond. This is the first poem to focus on the sound made by the movement of frogs, whereas in the world of waka poetry it was common practice to write about frogs croaking by the riverside in spring.