Basho's thoughts on...

• Woman Central
• Introduction to this site
• The Human Story:
• Praise for Women
• Love and Sex in Basho
• Children and Teens
• Humanity and Friendship
• On Translating Basho
• Basho Himself
• Poetry and Music
• The Physical Body
• Food, Drink, and Fire
• Animals in Basho
• Space and Time
• Letters Year by Year
• Bilingual Basho 日本語も
• 芭蕉について日本語の論文
• Basho Tsukeku 芭蕉付句
• BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
• New Articles


Matsuo Basho 1644~1694

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




basho4humanity
@gmail.com




Plea for Affiliation

 

Plea For Affiliation

 

I pray for your help

in finding someone
individual, university,

or foundation - 
to take over my

3000 pages of material,   
to cooperate with me 

to edit the material,
to receive all royalties 

from sales, to spread

Basho’s wisdom worldwide,
and preserve for

future generations.


basho4humanity

@gmail.com

 



Home  >  Topics  >  Bilingual Basho 日本語も  >  H-06


She Folds, She Kindles

たたむ… 焼きて

Legend:
Words of Basho in bold
Words of other poets not bold

Sister from the Capital /here to have her baby /Weaving she folds / from flowers at wife's door /incense she kindles  都の妹が /子をうみに来る /機たたむ /妻戸に花の /香を焼きて

 

 

Sister from the Capital
here to have her baby
Weaving she folds,
from flowers at wife's door
fragrance she kindles

 

Complete Basho Renku Interpretations vol. 5: p. 66

芭蕉連句全注解、5巻、p. 66 

 

Miyako no imo ga / ko o umi ni kuru                          Ichiryu

34 都の妹が / 子をうみに来る                    一龍

 

都勤めをしていた妹が、お産のために 田舎の実家に帰って来るとの意。

The sister living in the Capital returns to her native place to give birth.

 

         Hata tatamu / tsumado ni hana no / ka o yakite                 Basho

35   機たたむ / 妻戸に花の   /  香を焼きて                芭蕉

織り上げた布をたたんで休めば 妻戸に咲き満ちて漂う、 香を焼いたような花の香のかぐわしき。その母の姿か。

 

        The pregnant woman folds the fabric she has woven and puts it aside, then the flowers which have               blossomed and wilted near the “wife’s door” she burns in the woodstove so the fragrance of flowers        wafts through the kitchen. Is this the formation of a mother?

 

 A young woman goes to the Big City to live, work, and marry. Pregnant, she returns to her natal home where her mother can care for her before and during birth, then help out with the new-born. Basho fulfils the theme of pregnancy with the specific actions of this woman with swollen belly. Having woven the long piece of fabric on her loom, now she carefully aligns the two ends to fold in half, then quarters, then eighths, until she has a neat pile to put aside and later sew into a robe for her baby. Japanese are famous for folding paper to form origami figures; here the woman folds fabric to create the essential quality of Japanese society: order and regularity. Meanwhile the life-process folds her baby into a fetal position in her womb.


Then she takes some of the remains of wilted flowers from the “wife’s door,” the door between kitchen and back yard which only she passes through, and throws them into the woodstove. Modern women equip their homes with air fresheners – synthetic chemicals in a plastic bottle – but Japanese women of old simply recycled nature of this purpose. Basho sees the pregnant woman in the place she herself was born, weaving fabric for baby clothes, spreading sweet aroma throughout the kitchen, she generates positive energy for the new life: the ordinary but eternal work of women to keep children warm and home fragrant.


I translate in accord with the BRZ’s concluding comment: “is this the formation of a mother?” “She”, like Galadriel in the Lord of the Rings films, is definitely present, and her actions altogether real and equally magical.  As he so often does, Basho delights in his use of active lively verbs: she folds life in order and kindles the fragrance of love.

 

若い女性は、住み、働き、そして結婚するために大都市に行きます。妊娠中 の彼女は、母親に出産前後の世話をしてもらいに実家に戻り、赤ん坊を出産 し世話します。芭蕉はお腹が膨らんだこの女性の限りある行動で妊娠につい ての解釈を十分表現しています。織機に長い布を織り込んだ後、彼女は両端 を慎重に揃えて半分に折り、又その半分、そして又、きちゃんと重ねて、後 で赤ちゃんのおくるみを縫うようにしてある。日本では折り紙が有名ですが、 この女性は布を折って、秩序をイメージしています。一方、赤ん坊も胎内で 胎児のように折り畳まれている。

 

そして、妻の戸, つまり 台所の裏口、台所と裏庭の間にある妻だけが通る戸、 から、しおれた花の残骸を取り出し、薪ストーブに放り込むのである。 現代 の女性は、プラスチックボトルに入った芳香剤を使っていますが、昔の日本 の女性は、自然のものをそのままリサイクルしているのです。ベビー服の生 地を織り、台所に甘い香りを漂わせ、新しい生命を育むためのエネルギーを 生み出す。芭蕉は、妊婦が自分の生まれた場所で、これから生まれてくる赤 ん坊のために身体と家庭と精神を準備する姿を見ているのである。

 

私は BRZ の結論のコメントに従って翻訳します:「これは母親の形成ですか?」 『ロード・オブ・ザ・リング』の映画のガラドリエルのように、「彼女」は 間違いなく存在し、彼女の行動は完全に現実的で同じように魔法です。芭蕉はよくあることですが、活発な動詞を使うことを喜んでいます。彼女 は人生を順番に折り畳み、愛の香りを燃やします。


Basho wrote hundreds of poems about women and children, about friendship, love, and compassion, possibly the most pro-female, child-centered, and life-affirming works in world literature.

女性と子供達、友人や愛や同情をかんじて、 何百もの句を残し心暖かい芭蕉を広く公開しましょう。 最高の女性の味方、子供目線、そして人生の応援歌ではないでしょうか

 

For a menu of 300 Basho articles, see

www.basho4humanity.com/topic-description.php?ID=1525955995

 

For the entire series of Bilingual Essays, see

www.basho4humanity.com/topic-category.php?Cat=15

 

For “Letters from Basho” including translation of 60 letters, see

www.basho4humanity.com/topic-category.php?Cat=14

 

For Basho’s ultimate masterpiece, the tanka SPRING PASSES BY, see

www.basho4humanity.com/topic-description.php?ID=1525958016

 

Feedback will be greatly appreciated: basho4humanity@gmail.com

 







<< Empower to Soften (H-05) (H-07) Coins Held in Her Hand (Renku) >>


The Three Thirds of Basho

 

 

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.

 

basho4humanity@gmail.com
Basho's thoughts on...

• Woman Central
• Introduction to this site
• The Human Story:
• Praise for Women
• Love and Sex in Basho
• Children and Teens
• Humanity and Friendship
• On Translating Basho
• Basho Himself
• Poetry and Music
• The Physical Body
• Food, Drink, and Fire
• Animals in Basho
• Space and Time
• Letters Year by Year
• Bilingual Basho 日本語も
• 芭蕉について日本語の論文
• Basho Tsukeku 芭蕉付句
• BAMHAY (Basho Amazes Me! How About You?)
• New Articles


Matsuo Basho 1644~1694

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




basho4humanity
@gmail.com




Plea for Affiliation

 

Plea For Affiliation

 

I pray for your help

in finding someone
individual, university,

or foundation - 
to take over my

3000 pages of material,   
to cooperate with me 

to edit the material,
to receive all royalties 

from sales, to spread

Basho’s wisdom worldwide,
and preserve for

future generations.


basho4humanity

@gmail.com