This is both a hilarious and smart tribute, translation, and transmediation of Matsuo Basho’s celebrated “Old Pond” haiku. Borrowing part of the interface for the 1981 videogame, Frogger, Hennessy modifies it enough to allow the player to play the game to its inevitable conclusion. Pay attention to the Hi-Score rankings to discover the embedded poem. And keep in mind that “Basho’s Frogger” contains no sound, just as “the sound of water” in the haiku is heard only in the reader’s mind.

Featured in: Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 2.