The only substantial
collection in English
of Basho's renku, tanka,
letters and spoken word
along with his haiku, travel
journals, and essays.
The only poet in old-time
literature who paid attention with praise
to ordinary women, children, and teenagers
in hundreds of poems
Hundreds upon hundreds of Basho works
(mostly renku)about women, children,
teenagers, friendship, compassion, love.
These are resources we can use to better
understand ourselves and humanity.
Interesting and heartfelt
(not scholarly and boring)
for anyone concerned with
humanity.
“An astonishing range of
social subject matter and
compassionate intuition”
"The primordial power
of the feminine emanating
from Basho's poetry"
Hopeful, life-affirming
messages from one of
the greatest minds ever.
Through his letters,
we travel through his mind
and discover Basho's
gentleness and humanity.
I plead for your help in
finding a person or group
to take over my 3000 pages of Basho material,
to edit and improve the material, to receive 100%
of royalties, to spread Basho’s wisdom worldwide
and preserve for future generations.
Quotations from Basho Prose
The days and months are
guests passing through eternity.
The years that go by
also are travelers.
The mountains in silence
nurture the spirit;
the water with movement
calms the emotions.
All the more joyful,
all the more caring
Seek not the traces
of the ancients;
seek rather the
places they sought.
1 Basho haiku and 6 renku on sumo, archery, and sword
Legend:
Words of Basho in bold
Words of other poets not bold
Judo, karate, and Aikido were created in the 20th century. Sumo, archery, and arts of the sword are ancient, and their appearance in Basho renku should interest those who practice martial arts today.
Young and helpless with bow and arrows, the boy kneels
White hair seen through gaps in bamboo blind
弓 と 矢も / まだいたいけに /膝 まずき
白髪 さし出す / 簾 の あわせむ
Yumi to ya mo / mada itakeni ni / hiza mazuki
Shiraga sashidasu / misu no awasemu
The newest student at an archery dojo kneels on the floor, feeling small and weak. We imagine the dojo where tall powerful men strut about with dangerous weapons, making the boy feel the way he does. He kneels, hips resting on heels propped up on feet with toes forward, a position of alert readiness, struggling to keep his skinny back and shoulders straight, with all the maturity and resolution he can muster against the intimidation.
The white hair seen in long horizontal gaps between thin bamboo stalks tied in parallel belongs to the boy’s grandfather who hides behind the screen to watch without the boy knowing. He understands that his grandson must not see him, for this would interfere with the boy’s training. How does he knows this? Granddad is an accomplished archer – in Japanese, a shihan – who has trained in this dojo since he was a child. As the old man watches, he can see himself young and helpless 50 years ago today. He sees how that little boy became an aged master. So we cooperate with the poet to fulfil a vision. The original two stanzas express a profound human truth: the grandparent’s compassionate concern for a grandchild, a bond which passes through to the third generation.
Spring arrives late in sacred Nachi Mountains,
New Year’s Arrow: all the young sons try to shoot the best
那智の 御山 の / 春 おそき 空
弓はじめ /過ぎる 立てたる / 息子哉
Nachi no o-yama no / haru osoki sora
Kyuu hajime / sugiru tatetaru / musuko kana
The Nachi mountains near Kumano in Wakayama-ken are famous for warrior disciplines such as archery in freezing cold weather. Archery competitions are a New Year’s ritual, and for boys coming of age, a manhood ritual. (Comparable to ‘who can pee the furthest?’)
At the Sanjusangendo temple in Kyoto, samurai competed to shoot the most arrows in a 24-hour period to hit the target.
The days pile up getting used to a woman who floats along
The grass of love weakens his arm for archery
浮かれたる / 女 に なれて / 日をつもる
矢 数に 腕の / よわる 恋 草
Ukaretaru / onna ni narete / hi o tsumoru
Ya kazu ni ude no / yowaru koi kusa
He has given up his responsibilities and spends his days with a play-woman who “floats along” – doing no real work (according to men’s idea of work), just riding the waves of sexual desire and fulfillment. All his manhood poured into her has left him unable to shoot thousands of arrows in 24 hours. He who discharges too many of one sort of arrow cannot shoot so many of the other sort.
The warriors’ sword exhibition gets violent Woman soon cry out so they are banished
Appearance warped by a mirror, her resentment
武士の / 刃祭りを / 荒にける
女はなくに / 早きとていむ
様あしく / 鏡の ひづみ /たる恨み
Mononofu no / yabai matsuri o / ara ni keru
Onna wa naku ni / hayaki tote imu
Sama ashiku / kagami no hizumi / taru urami
At a matsuri, or Shinto festival, warriors exhibit their skills while also dedicating them to the gods. The men in the audience get a thrill when warriors wave about long sharp swords, but while the women know it’s a show, they still respond with real emotion. Men cannot stand it when women make a fuss, distracting from the solemnity and also disturbing the entertainment, so they forbid the women from attending. Basho transforms the contrast between show and reality into the “resentment” of a woman seeing her beauty marred by an imperfection in her mirror. Warped images in a mirror are not reality, they disappear without a trace -- but still the partial loss of the beauty she has carefully cultivated brings her anguish.
Once more he is thrown Maruyama marked black
One side of go board all over eastern Kyoto blossoms scatter
又なげられし / 丸山の色 片碁盤 /都の東 /はなちりて
Mata nagerareshi / Maruyama no iro Kata go ban / miyako no higashi / hana chirite
Maruyama was a famous sumo wrestler in Basho’s time. A victory in sumo is recorded with a white circle, a loss with a black circle. Basho jumps from sumo to the board game of go, from Maruyama the wrestler to Maruyama a section of eastern Kyoto famous for cherry blossoms. The objective in go is to surround the opponent’s stones and remove them from the board. Here the one playing black is totally overwhelmed: white stones are everywhere on one side of the board, as if all the blossoms in the eastern half of Kyoto have fallen. Those of you who watch sumo, or play go, or hang out in Maruyama: this verse is for your especial enjoyment.
Besides the moon village sumo contest is rained out
月 のみか / 雨に 相撲 も / なかりかり Tsuki nomi ka / ame ni sumou mo / nakari keri
For the harvest moon, villages hold sumo contests – the men and boys wearing only loincloths, so we see their ‘moons’ -- but this year there is only disappointment in the village. We need to focus more on Basho verses like this, verses that portray humanity.
Dew as his opponent sword drawn in a flash
Town notables together getting drunk under blossoms
露を相手に / 居合ひとねき
町衆の /つらりと酔って / 花の陰
Tsuyu o aite ni / iai hito nuki
Machishuu no / tsurari to yotte / hana ni kage
Basho uses the word iai for a practionarer of the martial art we now call iaido, the art of being aware and quickly drawing the sword. I have no experience of iaido, and I hope practitioners of this art will allow me to follow Wikipedia:
“The origin of the first two characters, iai (居合), is believed to come from saying Tsune ni ite, kyū ni awasu (常に居て、急に合わす), that can be roughly translated as "being constantly (prepared), match/meet (the opposition) immediately". Thus the primary emphasis in 'iai' is on the psychological state of being present (居). The secondary emphasis is on drawing the sword and responding to the sudden attack as quickly as possible (合).
In Basho’s stanza, the swordsman watches the dew on a blade of grass with all the concentration he has developed through years of practice. The instant the dewdrop parts from the grass, he whips out his sword to cut the air and return to its scabbard before the dew drop hits the ground. Basho portrays the feeling in the Iaido master.
Iaido is a reflection of the morals of the classical warrior and to build a spiritually harmonious person possessed of high intellect, sensitivity, and resolute will.
Rather than follow Basho with a similar stanza, Yaba goes to the opposite pole. Instead of a single person disciplining himself to spiritual unity and resolution, he presents a group of town government VIPs getting drunk and stupid at a picnic. In a letter to his old friend Ensui, Basho condemns the blossom picnics in
“this government place where the rich and famous
are noisy and insulting”
and Yaba expresses a similar opinion. Both the dew in Basho’s stanza and the cherry blossoms in Yaba’s are symbols of transience, one of autumn, the other of spring. The swordsman uses the transience to discipline himself to an ideal humanity, the picnickers just get bleary-eyed and tipsy in transience.
So, were these verses "lessons" in martial arts? Please respond.
I plead for your help in finding a person or group to take over my 3000 pages of Basho material, to edit and improve the presentation, to receive all royalties from sales, to spread Basho’s wisdom worldwide and preserve for future generations.
The only substantial
collection in English
of Basho's renku, tanka,
letters and spoken word
along with his haiku, travel
journals, and essays.
The only poet in old-time
literature who paid attention with praise
to ordinary women, children, and teenagers
in hundreds of poems
Hundreds upon hundreds of Basho works
(mostly renku)about women, children,
teenagers, friendship, compassion, love.
These are resources we can use to better
understand ourselves and humanity.
Interesting and heartfelt
(not scholarly and boring)
for anyone concerned with
humanity.
“An astonishing range of
social subject matter and
compassionate intuition”
"The primordial power
of the feminine emanating
from Basho's poetry"
Hopeful, life-affirming
messages from one of
the greatest minds ever.
Through his letters,
we travel through his mind
and discover Basho's
gentleness and humanity.
I plead for your help in
finding a person or group
to take over my 3000 pages of Basho material,
to edit and improve the material, to receive 100%
of royalties, to spread Basho’s wisdom worldwide
and preserve for future generations.
Quotations from Basho Prose
The days and months are
guests passing through eternity.
The years that go by
also are travelers.
The mountains in silence
nurture the spirit;
the water with movement
calms the emotions.
All the more joyful,
all the more caring
Seek not the traces
of the ancients;
seek rather the
places they sought.
