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.
Here is a stanza-pair of linked verse composed in 1694; Basho wrote the second stanza.
White cloth in the breeze lark sings to the sky
Girls only going to view blossoms rise in a flock
晒の上に / ひばり囀る
花見にと /女子ばかりが /つれ立て
Sarashi no ue ni / hibari saezuru
Hanami ni to / onago bakari ga / tsuretatete
Single layer cotton cloth is hanging on a line to dry; overhead a lark sings brightly rising to heaven.
The poet says no words of joy or hope, and even no words of humanity, but these human feelings,
joy and hope, are suggested by the flapping of fabric and bird’s wings.
Basho, the Poet of Humanity, places that suggested joyfulness in actual female youth: here are only
girls, so no males to dominate them, no female accommodation to boys, just girls being themselves.
The “flock” of teenage women in their pretty robes, going to have fun in the lovely spring weather, chatting and laughing with each other, complement the clarity and freshness of the first stanza. Clean white fabric, skylark, cherry blossoms, and group of happy girls, all get high together. This renku stanza pair, composed in Basho’s final spring, may be the most joyful of his poems of Lightness.
Basho, as an anthropologist, shows us the joy young girls and women can experience - just as Shakespeare, in As You Like It, gave Rosalind to the world (without the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet).
The Shakespeare site Smoop, says
Yale professor and literary critic Harold Bloom credits Rosalind with being the first real lover
in all of modern literature. She's the first to make fun of love and also the first to let herself be
fully embraced by all its frivolity and pure joy.
Judith Cook, in Women in Shakespeare, says
"Rosalind is a part that offers an actress all the wit, liveliness, and joy anyone could ask for."
I hope you, the reader, especially if you are female, find a similar joy in Basho's GIRLS ONLY.
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.
