A most excellent little haiku by Mizuta Masahide (16571723), a minor disciple of Matsuo Basho.

Perhaps the most colloquial English translation, and the one most commonly circulated on the internet, is as follows:


Barn's burnt down--
now I can see
the moon.


A more literal translation would be:


The storehouse burned down and
now there's nothing in the way--
moon viewing.


In the original Japanese:


蔵焼けて 障るものなき 月見哉

kura yakete / sawaru mono naki / tsukimi kana

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