Comment on my Basho observations at Language Log: Translation and analysis.

Kent Johnson points out that Lucien Stryk is a good translator as well:

"Summer grasses,
all that remains
of soldiers' dreams."

I do adore Stryk's translations, in fact, but does he beat the collective wisdom in this case? For example, most translations have "warriors" in place of "soldiers." His translation is better than most of the others, but where it departs from the collective wisdom I disagree with him. "Warriors" best captures the "medievalism" of Basho's reflection on a famous battleground.