Quotes from Harold G. Henderson

An ideal translation should, I believe, reproduce the effect of the original, but I have found that the best any translator can even hope for is to reproduce the effect that the originals have had on him. (Preface, vi)

haiku were not written to be weighed down with commentary. (Buson, p. 103)

too much explanation can take the pleasure out of any poetry. (Preface, vii)

good haiku are full of overtones. The elusiveness that is one of their chief charms comes, not from haziness, but from the fact that so much suggestion is put into so few words. (Characteristics of Haiku, p. 4)