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  >  Basho Tsukeku 芭蕉付句  >  K-14


Verses Only: Tsukeku Section 4

芭蕉連句全注解、四冊から連句 From volume 4 of the Basho Renku Zenchuukai

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

"A stanza elaborately constructed is useless."  一句細工に仕立て候事、不用そうろう事  Ikku saiku ni shitate sōrō koto, fuyō ni sōrō koto

 

To Basho, an “elaborately constructed verse” is literary and old, so ordinary people do not care for it.

He always aims for freshness and newness.

Peony pistils
deep within, the bee's
reluctance to part 
May morning moon refresh
your road of shining dew

 

 

Her hair gone,
chamberlain’s daughter
grown weary
Storm over Nonomiya                           
ladies’ temple bells

 

 

To follow in the footsteps
of a wandering madwoman
Compassion                                     
is learned when the gold
has rotted away

 

 

 

Colors of the rainbow
decorate the boulder
Kite string cut,                            
soul of the milk-giver
soars to heaven

 

Castle guards
asleep on their feet,
morning dawns
Covering her faded                             


Waiting to meet,                             

temple bell has fallen
amidst the grass                               
Toads call to their friends
in tones of deep lament

 

 

 

Sister waits for cowherd’s
late returning shadow
Chest conflicted,                        
crepe fabric of Echigo
she cannot weave

 

 

 

Basho told Kyorai

Only this, apply your heart to what children do


And this he did:


Knocking on back door              
and running away home
She cries and cries
with never a conclusion
to her hiccups

 

 

 

The punitive force
already has set forth
in solemn dignity
For one night’s vow                 
he empties his purse

 

 

 

Sinking into
chill the hot spring pool,
awesome Moon                            
Of the three deer
one carries an arrow

 

 

 

Hard of hearing                        
his wife has told him
“hototogisu”
Through hardship in Mino
they have a tea house

 

 

 

Old Pond –                                           
frog jumps in
water-sound
Two young leaves of reed
suspend a spider’s web

 

 

 

In the cold wind
at sunset, long-drawn-out
cries of hawks
Foretell the heads to fall                
in tomorrow’s battle

 

 

 

Among pines a low door
closed in by thorns –
His play-woman                         
hidden seven miles
from the Capital

 

 

 

With her needle
in autumn she manages
to make ends meet
Daughter playing koto                 
reaches age seven

 

 

 

White flowers                            
without mother at home
seem so chilly
Her fragrance lingering
a brief night’s dream
An assortment
of clouds can be seen,
the moon clear.

 

 

Rice planting
maidens are lined up
to drink sake -
Holding snow in summer           
twin peaks of Tsukuba

 

 

 

Drunk on the shoulders
of people he leans 
The party today                        
was so much fun,
granddad’s dance

 

 

 

On the young wife’s head             
Chinese Rings are gentle
As a keepsake
some fabric from a bag
getting faint

 

 

 

Along with his tears
hillbilly’s dumb poem
He combs his hair                      
with bear grease, oh what
a horrible name!

 

 

After the years
of grieving . . . finally
past eighteen
Day and night dreams               
of Father in that battle

 

 

 

The pines all night long
cordially receive snow
Fisherman’s child                     
to announce a whale
blows into a shell

 

 

Cold to the skin,
unused to coin hanging
from his neck
Black hair spilling power                
of a baggage carrier

 

 

 

As dawn comes
we realize in the night
bell was stolen
Hut of a border guard             
to a country defeated

 

 

 

 

Wearing imperial robes
he is indeed august
Full of sutras                               
is his boat escorted
by a crocodile?

 

 

 

Waves cover the rock
then they reveal it
As the pines are                    
battered and twisted
such is love

 

 

Two nails for clothing
lonely is the night
No one comes                         
to make my own wife
give me leisure
Boiling rice is a drag
and makes me cry

 

 

 

Not getting up
I recognize his fragrance
and I worry

 

                  (or) 

 

Not getting up
I recognize his smell
and am afraid
Wiping the sweat from               
sidelocks in disarray

 


 

With face red                        
and beard scraggly
Seishi’s papa
White camellia’s long
village road to love

 

 

 

Fresh and green
the tranquility of a rock
that never moves
Drinking then sleeping               
here on this bridge

 

 

 

basho4humanity@gmail.com






<< Verses Only: Tsukeku Section 3 (K-13) (K-15) Verses Only: Tsukeku Section 5 >>


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