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.
In the old capital /remains his spirit's house /No longer black /with plectrum for lute /scalp I scratch /Breastfeeding on my lap /what dreams do you see?
In a renku sequence of 1692, Basho wrote these three stanzas in succession:
In the ancient capital, Nara, a mausoleum above the grave of a nobleman
Kurokaranu / kashira kakitaru / tsuge no bachi Bashō
11 くろからぬ / 首かきたる / 柘の撥 芭蕉
髪が 白くなった、撥で掻くはお魂屋の前で貴人ゆかりの楽を奏し奉る。
Her hair white, a woman plucks a stringed instrument to honor the dead man.
Ｃhi o nomu hiza ni / nani o yume miru Bashō
12 乳をのむ膝に / 何を夢みる 芭蕉
無心に膝に抱かれて乳を呑む子は、何を夢見ているのだろうか。
Breastfeeding baby on her lap, she searches to see the dreams within
Basho begins with a boy in the original Capital of Japan, 8th century Nara, who had dreams of success in the patriarchal world, and grew up to accomplish them, so people built a “spirit’s house,” a large ornate mausoleum, over his grave. The second stanza adds a person before the mausoleum plucking a lute with a wooden pick to honor the deceased. She can be the nobleman’s widow whose hair was black when he was alive, but no longer. Unable to speak to her husband, she plays music to his spirit. That mysterious itch under her hair may be his reply from the other world. With pick already in her hand, she uses it to scratch her scalp. The link between the first two stanzas focuses on ‘his-story,’ the stories of patriarchy, government, politics, and oldness.
Breastfeeding on my lap /what dreams do you see?
Basho’s third stanza takes the second one away from his-story, to form a link of ‘her-story,’ the stories of femininity, life-giving, and nourishing the young which men usually ignore. A baby has about the size and shape of a lute and like a lute is held on the lap. Japanese of old believed that babies live in the spiritual world until age seven. As the tiny mouth sucks her nipple and milk flows into baby, she gazes into his or her eyes and forehead searching to see the dreams within. She prays that this infant, nourished by her milk, will realize those dreams.
Basho thus transforms a woman’s spiritual communication with the dead into her spiritual communication with the newborn life she created. This, Basho’s female consciousness, we must preserve.
ふるき都に
残るお魂屋
くろからぬ
首かきたる
柘の撥
乳をのむ膝に
何を夢みる
芭蕉の 3 つの句を A、B、C と呼び、B と A を結びから C と B を結ぶ移りを観 察してみよう。A では昔の日本の首都、8 世紀の奈良、の少年が成長し、夢を 実現するために、人々は彼の墓に大きな装飾のある霊堂を建てました。
B の句 では、霊堂の前で弦楽器を演奏する人が登場し、故人を偲ぶ。家父長的な伝 統によれば、これは盲目の僧侶が、死に関する仏典を読むのに合わせて琵琶 を演奏しているのであろう。しかし、芭蕉は古い伝統にとらわれず、この句 は、髪を気にすることで、生前は黒髪だったが、時の流れで変わってしまっ た未亡人を描くことができる。夫の霊と話せない彼女は、夫のために音楽を 奏でる。髪の下に不思議なかゆみを感じたとき、彼女はそれが死者からの返 事であることを認識する。すでに手に持って撥で頭皮を掻く。
この三句では、A から B へのリンクは、家父長制、政府、政治、老齢といっ た「his-story 彼の歴史」に焦点が当てられている。芭蕉は B を、男性が無視 しがちな女性らしさ、生命を育むこと、若者を養うことなどの「her-story, 彼 女の歴史」のリンクを形成するように仕向けるのである。このような女性中 心のリンクを評価するために、赤ん坊と琵琶がほぼ同じ大きさと形をしてい ること、琵琶と同様に女性の膝に抱かれていることに注目します。それから、 赤ん坊は七歳まで精神世界で生きているという日本の信仰を紹介する。小さ な口で乳首を吸い、母乳が赤ちゃんに流れ込むと、その目や額を見つめなが ら、内なる夢を探ります。この子は自分の乳で育まれ、その夢を実現するの だろうかと。
乳をのむ膝に / 何を夢みる
このように、芭蕉は B から C へのリンクの中で、A 句の死者と の心の交流を、自分が生み出した新しい生命との心の交流に変換しているの である。これが芭蕉の女性意識であり、私たちが守るべきものである。
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.
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.
