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.
Basho Spoken Word
Only this, apply your heart to what children do
"The attachment to Oldness is the very worst disease a poet can have."
“The skillful have a disease; let a three-foot child get the poem"
"Be sick and tired of yesterday’s self."
"This is the path of a fresh lively taste with aliveness in both heart and words." .
"In poetry is a realm which cannot be taught. You must pass through it yourself. Some poets have made no effort to pass through, merely counting things and trying to remember them. There was no passing through the things."
"In verses of other poets, there is too much making and the heart’s immediacy is lost. What is made from the heart is good; the product of words shall not be preferred."
"We can live without poetry, yet without harmonizing with the world’s feeling and passing not through human feeling, a person cannot be fulfilled. Also, without good friends, this would be difficult."
"Poetry benefits from the realization of ordinary words."
"Many of my followers write haiku equal to mine, however in renku is the bone marrow of this old man."
"Your following stanza should suit the previous one as an expression of the same heart's connection."
"Link verses the way children play."
"Make renku ride the Energy. Get the timing wrong, you ruin the rhythm."
"The physical form first of all must be graceful then a musical quality makes a superior verse."
"As the years passed by to half a century. asleep I hovered among morning clouds and evening dusk, awake I was astonished at the voices of mountain streams and wild birds."
“These flies sure enjoy having an unexpected sick person.”
Haiku of Humanity
Drunk on sake woman wearing haori puts in a sword
Night in spring one hidden in mystery temple corner
Wrapping rice cake with one hands she tucks hair behind ear
On Life's journey plowing a small field going and returning
Child of poverty hulling rice, pauses to look at the moon
Tone so clear the Big Dipper resounds her mallet
Huddling under the futon, cold horrible night
Jar cracks with the ice at night awakening
Basho Renku Masterpieces
With her needle in autumn she manages to make ends meet Daughter playing koto reaches age seven
After the years of grieving. . . finally past eighteen Day and night dreams of Father in that battle
Now to this brothel my body has been sold Can I trust you with a letter I wrote, mirror polisher?
Only my face by rice-seedling mud is not soiled Breastfeeding on my lap what dreams do you see?
Single renku stanzas
Giving birth to love in the world, she adorns herself
Autumn wind saying not a word child in tears
Among women one allowed to lead them in chorus
Easing in her slender forearm for his pillow
Two death poems:
On a journey taken ill dreams on withered fields wander about
Clear cascade - into the ripples fall green pine needles
Renku in Basho4Humanity are mostly stana-pairs isolated from the long sequences in which they were written. These quintets provide more of a flow yet still focus on the links.
When linked verses are given in full 36 stanza sequences without commentary, the reader may enjoy the flow of words and images like a montage, making no attempt to understanding the stanzas and their links,
or trying to understand but unable to see the point. I am experimenting how to weave my commentaries into the originals to bring you the most appreciation. I hope the way in this article works for you, and you will tell me so. All the stanzas on one two-page spread are as the poets wrote them. The sequence is divided into four stanza-pairs (AB, BC, CD, DE) with commentary after each pair. As always in Basho4Humanity:
Basho’s words are bold,
the other poet’s words not bold.
Green Leaves sequence (1678), #s 11 to 15
From blossoms naked seeds return to their roots
Bath water bottom dragon palace spring
Seeds from fallen blossoms lose enter the ground to join their original roots -- as my naked body enters the hot tub. Because water refracts light away from a straight line, and water movement distorts my vision of things, my body and the water around appear magical. In the legends of the Sea God’s Dragon Palace, it is time, rather than space, which magically changes; one day equals a century, and the four seasons occurs simultaneously in the four corners of the palace.
Bath water bottom dragon palace spring
Roadhouse hooker or Sea-God’s daughter, which is she?
The Sea-God has a daughter steeped in the magic of her father’s realm. What about the servant girls who cook food at roadside rest houses and also provide sex to travelers? Are they immoral whores? Or are they – all girls carrying the future -- daughters of the divine?
Roadhouse hooker or Sea-God’s daughter, which is she? Age of the Gods unheard love for a hundred coins
The “sea-god’s daughter” (like the “farmer’s daughter”) suggests that she “puts out” -- as does the roadhouse hooker. Because men listen not to the Gods, they purchase “love” from hookers. A hundred coins was about 2000 yen or 20 dollars today; a paltry fee to pay for a quickie at a roadside rest area.
Age of the Gods unheard love for a hundred coins
Bowing with respect to that precious treasure, the Pillow Book
Basho would rather read the words of a woman divinely inspired, Sei Shonagon in her Pillow Book. This is a collection of her opinions – and she has an opinion about everything. Male chauvinists hate it when women express an opinion, so it is quite feminist for Basho to praise this book in particular. He says the reading the Pillow Book is better than sex.
Chikusai sequence (1684) #s 8 to 12
Till her hair grows back she must hide her self
In the bitterness of delusion, squeezing out milk to throw away
He seduced her with promises of love and devotion, but when she gave birth to a son, he took the boy to be his heir and abandoned her. With no place else to go, she entered a temple which takes in such women. She had to cut her hair and stay in a cell. Only when her hair has grow back can she can re-enter society. Her breasts still have milk which she has to squeeze out and throw away – while she recalls the baby that milk is produced for – such is the bitterness in her heart.
In the bitterness of delusion, squeezing out milk to throw away Beside unfading stupa in distress she cries
The “delusion” is that reality will be kind or fair to us. A stupa is a pagoda-shaped wooden tablet set up by a tomb, on which phrases from a sutra are written for the repose of the dead's soul. This, unlike her baby, will remain.
Beside unfading stupa in distress she cries
Shadow figure in the cold of dawn lights a fire
Basho pulls back from the overt heaviness of Kakei’s stanza with a bit of warmth and light. Scholars agree that that the identity of this “shadow figure” cannot be determined. From the previous stanza, I believe that the spirit of the dead child has returned for a moment to warm and console mother with the gift of fire. Later in life, whenever she builds a fire, she will feel her child’s presence.
Shadow figure in the cold of dawn lights a fire
Empty house, the owner taken away by poverty
Tokoku makes the shadow figure a vagrant who has found an empty house whose owner has succumbed to poverty and disappeared; he burns the cabinets and shelves and other wood lying around so he will not succumb to hypothermia. Both the owner and the vagrant are shadows, vestiges of humanity, leftovers after the dignity has been squeezed out.
Summer Moon sequence (1690) #s 4 to 8
Ashes brushed off single dried salmon
In these parts silver coins unknown what a bummer!
The woman at a roadside rest area serves the traveler a meager repast; she is careless and lets ashes from the fire get on the fish, so she brushes them off. We understand that this is a cheap and not very clean establishment. The traveler is shocked when he tries to pay for the fish with a coin which she rejects because she has never seen one before.
In these partrs silver coins unknown, what a bummer!
Absurdly long sword hangs from his waist
We see what sort of person he is: Ueda says “a young dandy, handsome and well-dressed, who is too conceited to earn his living by working industriously. We wears a long sword to show off his identity and drifts from place to place looking for a gambling house. Now in this remote little inn, he sneers at the country folk who do not even recognize a silver coin, common-place to a gambler”
Absurdly long sword hangs from his waist Evening dusk startled by a frog in thick grass --
Boncho adds more pieces to the puzzle: this jerk is awfully impressed with himself, but has no cojones to go along with his sword: the movement of a frog in the grass beside the road strikes terror in his skinny chest.
Evening dusk startled by a frog in thick grass
To pick buds of coltsfoot lantern shaken goes out
Basho switches to the female. She is on her way to gather flower buds of the fuki plant, coltsfoot, like small artichokes, an early spring delicacy which emerges where snow has melted. Fried or boiled they are eaten with salt or miso. Since the time is evening, she carries a lantern. The frog’s movement startles her so she jumps back in surprise, knocking out the flame. There she is, hidden in the twilight, her heart trembling within her. The woman’s experience, her actions and her feelings, are central, yet hidden, in Basho’s vision.
Nearly Autumn Sequence (1694) #s 18 to 22
Socks taken off to dry air shimmers from wall
At New Years we take along our little buggers
We took our kids along with us making New Year calls, but really they do not want to go. We told them to keep their clothes clean, but somehow their socks got sweaty. I hang the socks on the garden wall in the New Year’s sunshine; moisture and odor from them rises to form “shimmers” in the air.
At New Years we take along our little buggers
Though meaning we hide they stand and listen
Socks and wall disappear. As we talk, we hide our meaning in a maze of adult words with references to people and things they know not – but how much do the highly attentive language sponges pick up? Adults think that language comprehension requires knowledge of each word’s individual meaning, but children get the meaning from context. The link between the two stanzas leads us into the nature of language and intelligence.
I change the pronouns in the third stanza because the female orientation of the fourth stanzas requires this.
Though meaning he hides she stands and listens
Above lantern the pale white of her complexion
The rule in renku is ‘seperation from the second stanza before’ – C relates to B but eliminates A. So the New Year and the children are gone, replaced by a man leaving his lover’s house before dawn. He hides his meaning from her while she “stands and listens” to discern his heart. As she lifts up her lantern to better see him, her face turns white as she realizes his true intentions hidden by artful words.
Above lantern the pale white of her complexion
Upon tatami the lute put down with a thud
Basho makes the woman disappointed by love play a sad piece on her lute , then put down the instrument; we hear her exhaustion in the thud her instrument makes on the slightly yielding tatami mat; ordinarily she would put it down as silently as a cat walks, but disappointment has sapped her strength so gravity wins for an instant before she regains control. From ethereal face above lantern, Basho creates a solid, distinct sound: thud.
Monkey’s Raincoat Sequence (1694) #s 28 - 32
Bright red cockscomb In front of the garden
To quiet down the unsettled heart of the daughter
In Japanese gardens cockscomb flowers so deeply red, so vivid and bold a red, that every eye is drawn to them, all the more so at the garden’s entrance. Red, the color of passion, suggests the turmoil in the heart of a teenage girl. Basho creates that emotional turmoil, along with a compassionate mother to calm down her daughter.
To quiet down the unsettled heart of the daughter
Night sweats have stopped in this morning’s dream
“The daughter broods over thoughts of love, upset to hysteria. We imagine her shaking all over, possibly because of a marriage proposal she dislikes. The blasts of adolescent hormones produce night sweats, copious perspiration which soaks her nightclothes and bedding, usually accompanied by emotional crying. Her mother – or someone like a mother –manages to say the right words in the right tone to soothe and settle her down.”
Night sweats have stopped in this morning’s dream Pine breeze awakens the chorus of caged birds
After the daughter calms down and falls asleep, Shiko creates the dreams which soothe the turmoil and return the brain to normal as a new sun rises. She awakes to bird song from a row of cages along with a breeze from the pines near the house. This is a wealthy mansion.
Pine breeze awakens the chorus of caged birds
Carpenters start to work heard by wife deep within
The daughter and her turmoil disappear; now we see only the wife. She hears carpenters beginning their work in another part of the house – but that does not interfere with the peacefulness in her part of the house – so again we feel the size and prosperity of the house. The sound of carpenters in her home, but far away, makes the wife at daybreak feel calm and peaceful, relishing her family’s prosperity along with the bird song and cool breeze.
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.
Basho Spoken Word
Only this, apply your heart to what children do
"The attachment to Oldness is the very worst disease a poet can have."
“The skillful have a disease; let a three-foot child get the poem"
"Be sick and tired of yesterday’s self."
"This is the path of a fresh lively taste with aliveness in both heart and words." .
"In poetry is a realm which cannot be taught. You must pass through it yourself. Some poets have made no effort to pass through, merely counting things and trying to remember them. There was no passing through the things."
"In verses of other poets, there is too much making and the heart’s immediacy is lost. What is made from the heart is good; the product of words shall not be preferred."
"We can live without poetry, yet without harmonizing with the world’s feeling and passing not through human feeling, a person cannot be fulfilled. Also, without good friends, this would be difficult."
"Poetry benefits from the realization of ordinary words."
"Many of my followers write haiku equal to mine, however in renku is the bone marrow of this old man."
"Your following stanza should suit the previous one as an expression of the same heart's connection."
"Link verses the way children play."
"Make renku ride the Energy. Get the timing wrong, you ruin the rhythm."
"The physical form first of all must be graceful then a musical quality makes a superior verse."
"As the years passed by to half a century. asleep I hovered among morning clouds and evening dusk, awake I was astonished at the voices of mountain streams and wild birds."
“These flies sure enjoy having an unexpected sick person.”
Haiku of Humanity
Drunk on sake woman wearing haori puts in a sword
Night in spring one hidden in mystery temple corner
Wrapping rice cake with one hands she tucks hair behind ear
On Life's journey plowing a small field going and returning
Child of poverty hulling rice, pauses to look at the moon
Tone so clear the Big Dipper resounds her mallet
Huddling under the futon, cold horrible night
Jar cracks with the ice at night awakening
Basho Renku Masterpieces
With her needle in autumn she manages to make ends meet Daughter playing koto reaches age seven
After the years of grieving. . . finally past eighteen Day and night dreams of Father in that battle
Now to this brothel my body has been sold Can I trust you with a letter I wrote, mirror polisher?
Only my face by rice-seedling mud is not soiled Breastfeeding on my lap what dreams do you see?
Single renku stanzas
Giving birth to love in the world, she adorns herself
Autumn wind saying not a word child in tears
Among women one allowed to lead them in chorus
Easing in her slender forearm for his pillow
Two death poems:
On a journey taken ill dreams on withered fields wander about
Clear cascade - into the ripples fall green pine needles