In this ambitious consideration, preeminent haiku expert Vicente Haya sets about the task of explaining in a single book all there is to know about the traditional Japanese poetry form. To this end, he establishes 88 fundamental keys to haiku and illustrates these points by directly translating 262 haikus from Japanese to Spanish. Many of them—including a number from well-known authors—contain errors that Haya masterfully and clearly dissects so that readers can understand what makes a good haiku. The book is engaging and accessible but also intense in its defense of the purity of the art form, and combines biting criticism with a lyric and almost mystical tone. It is precisely for this reason that the book is titled
Aware
: the term in Japanese that synthesizes the aesthetic-religious emotion that awakens nature.