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.
Startled by clappers /a window in the thicket / Sister cries / for her life married / to a thief // 鳴子おどろく/ 方藪の窓 / 盗人に / 連れ添う妹が / 身を泣て
Startled by clappers a window in the thicket
Sister cries for her life married to a thief
Complete Basho Renku Interpretations, volume 6: p. 79
芭蕉連句全注解、６巻:７9 ３２
Naruko odoroku / kata yabu no mado Chosetsu
３２鳴子おどろく 方藪の窓釣雪
熟れた穀物の畑に吊るされた拍子木の音に驚きます。
家の周りの低木を刈らないので、窓が一つしか見えない。
They startle at the sound of clappers hanging over fields of ripe grain.
They do not trim shrubs around the house, so only one window can be seen.
Nusubito ni / tsuresō imo ga / mi o nakite Basho
３３盗 人に / 連れ添う 妹 が / 身 を 泣て芭蕉
盗人は女を連れている。何も悪いことはしていないのに、彼女も身の危険を感じて泣く。
The thief has a woman with him. Although she has done nothing wrong,
she also feels threatened, so she cries.
In this house (or shack) they feel threatened; they startle at ordinary autumn sounds in a rice-growing village: the clatter of noisemakers hung over fields of ripening grain to scare away hungry birds. They allow the trees and shrubs surrounding the house to grow wild, so from the road only one window can be seen. Is that window an eye watching the road, armed and ready, to defend his freedom?
Basho continues, clarifying that the householder is a thief, yet focusing on the woman married – probably without license or ceremony – to this creep. Chosetsu’s stanza is profound social realism, but a masculine, anti-social reality. Basho looks rather at the female side of the gender coin. We imagine his lack of concern for how she feels, along with her constant anxiety over her husband’s occupation. When the clappers sound, she startles, wondering what will happen to her when ‘they’ come to take him.
My thoughts go to Nancy in Oliver Twist, also married to a thief, the despicable Bill Sikes.
Nancy participated in the evil of Fagin’s gang, yet when the time came, she fought courageously for life
and decency. Hysterically she screams at Fagin:
It is my living; and the cold, wet, dirty streets are my home; and you're the wretchthat drove me to them so long ago, and that'll keep me there, day and night, day and night, till I die!"
Chosetsu’s stanza leads me to the warped humanity of Fagin and Sikes as the police and mob closed in on them, while Basho’s stanza reveals the tragedy of Nancy, but also her liveliness and integrity.
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.
