According to Basho’s travel diary, he wrote this after seeing a child of about three-years-old abandoned and crying by the road. He felt so sad that he gave him what little food he had. Unfortunately, back then, abandonment was common because of the extreme poverty and there was no system to rescue abandoned children. In “monkey hearing people,” Basho is making reference to the traditional Chinese poetical theme of a monkey’s cries representing sadness while contrasting it to the more concrete sadness of an abandoned child. “Autumn wind” also traditionally symbolizes sadness.

To those hearing the monkey’s cries,

What about the child abandoned,

With the autumn wind?

Saru o kiku hito to

Sutego ni aki no

Kaze ikani

Monkey hearing person

[A deserted child / baby] [to/for] autumn’s

Wind [How? How is it? What do you think of it?]