It has been said many times before, but Matsushima is the most beautiful view in Japan, not inferior to Dongting Lake or West Lake in China. The sea enters from the southeast, and the bay, about three ri across, is full like the tide of Zhejiang.
The islands are beyond counting: the tall ones point to heaven, the low ones crawl on the waves. Some are doubled, some folded in three, parting to the left and joining to the right. Some carry small islands on their backs, some hold them in their arms, as if loving their children and grandchildren. The green of the pines is deep, their branches and leaves bent by the sea wind, as if shaped by nature's own hand.
The view enchants the heart, like a beautiful woman who has made up her face. Was it the work of the god Oyamazumi in the age of the gods? Who could paint with a brush or say in words the heavenly craft of the creator?
Ojima-ga-iso is an island joined to the land, jutting into the sea. There are the remains of Zen master Ungo's meditation hall and his meditation rock. In the shade of the pines, one sometimes sees people who have left the world, living quietly in grass huts where smoke rises from burning fallen ears and pine cones. I did not know who they were, but feeling drawn to them I stopped by, and meanwhile the moon shone on the sea, and the view became different again from the daytime.
When we returned near the bay and took lodgings, we opened the windows of the upper floor, and it felt wonderfully strange, as if we were sleeping on the road amid wind and clouds.
"Matsushima ya / tsuru ni mi o kare / hototogisu" (Sora) (At Matsushima, little cuckoo, borrow the body of a crane: your own form does not suit this grand view.)
I tried to write a verse but could not; I tried to sleep but could not.
At Matsushima, which he had longed for since setting out, saying "the moon at Matsushima was the first thing on my mind," Basho, overwhelmed by the view, in the end recorded no haiku. The verse "Matsushima ya / aa Matsushima ya / Matsushima ya" was made by someone in a later age.