Ryota - They spoke no words, The visitor the host, And the white chrysanthemum

ものいはず客と亭主と白菊と (mono iwazu kyaku to teishu to shiragiku to): saying nothing, the guest, and the host, and the white chrysanthemum. ものいはず is saying nothing, the only verb in the poem and a negative one; 客と亭主と is the guest and the host joined by と, and the third と after 白菊, the white chrysanthemum, an autumn season word, puts the flower in the same list on the same terms. The poem is its grammar: three who say nothing, and the flower is the third guest, sat with rather than looked at. It is Ōshima Ryōta's, from his own collection, the 蓼太句集; Ryōta, 1718 to 1787, preached a return to Bashō and is said to have had three thousand pupils. Shiki copied the verse into his manuscript compilation of 1889 twice, once under white chrysanthemum and once under verses that end in と. The English is R. H. Blyth's, from his Haiku of 1949, with one word changed.