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.
To quiet down / the unsettled heart /of the daughter /Night sweats have stopped /in this morning’s dream 定らぬ / 娘のこころ / 取りしづめ / 寝汗のとまる / 今朝がたの夢
To quiet down the unsettled heart of the daughter
Night sweats have stopped in this morning’s dream
芭蕉連句全注解、１０巻 ｐ。２０７ ～８
日本古典文学全集 ７１巻、ｐ。５７２－７３
２９ 定らぬ娘のこころ取りしづめ 芭蕉
恋の想いにつきつめた心から、いらいらしてヒステリー状態に ある娘を、
母親などがなんとかおちつかせようとして、いろいろとなだめすかしていろさまである。
３０ 寝汗のとまる今朝がたの夢 支考
朝がた深い眠りからさめたところ、ヒステリーから
お生み出した寝汗はすっかりとまっていた。
Basho suggests, in a verse suitable for a modern parenting magazine, the turmoil in the heart of a teenage girl: she broods over thoughts of love, upset to hysteria. shaking all over. Basho creates that emotional turmoil, then also creates a compassionate and understanding mother to calm down her daughter, to say
the right words in the right tone to soothe and settle her heart. Shiko makes the passion psycho-somatic; the blasts of adolescent hormones produce night sweats, copious perspiration which soaks her nightclothes and bedding, usually accompanied by emotional crying. After the mother in Basho’s stanza quiets down her daughter so she falls asleep, Shiko creates the dreams which end the turmoil and return the brain to normal as a new sun rises.
Carol Christ notes that “the mother-daughter bond, perhaps the most important of women's bonds, is rarely celebrated in patriarchal religion and culture.” She quotes Adrienne Rich: “the flow of energy between two biologically alike bodies, one of which has lain in amniotic bliss inside the other, one of which has labored to give birth to the other." Basho was the one man in patriarchal culture who did celebrate the mother-daughter bond.
Basho portrays the mother caring, with sensitivity and wisdom, for her daughter, acting not for herself, but rather to serve another person. Sam Hamill, a scholar who knows only Basho haiku and not his renku, claims that Basho was “at times, cold-hearted, inhuman” – however the poems unfamiliar to Hamill
contain much itawaru, caring for others.” (See article D-4 Compassion.) Almost the very last words in Basho’s journal, A Narrow Path in the Heartlands, expresses his ideal for humanity:
All the more joyful, all the more caring 且喜び、且いたわる Katsu yorokobi, katsu itawaru
The stanza-pair TO QUIET DOWN is a means to introduce Basho’s caring to world consciousness
Basho’s several hundred poems about women, children, friendship, love, and compassion are, I believe, the most pro-female, child-centered, and life-affirming works in world literature. I pray 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, to spread these resources for understanding humanity worldwide and preserve for future generations
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.
