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
Before leaving on his journey through Kiso mountains (now the Japan Alps), Basho expresses his anxiety about traveling the rough and backward road
Trembling and all the more moist maiden flower
ひよろひよると / なほ 露けしや / 女郎花 Hyoro hyoro to / nao tsuyukeshi ya / ominaeshi
These are tiny clumps of yellow granules on tall stalks in autumn. The Japanese call them “harlot flowers” though the English is “maiden flowers.” How fragile are these flowers moist with dew and seeming about to topple in the raw mountain wind. The translation is altogether literal, however words take on divergent meanings in our private minds.
-------------------------------------------
“The bees will let themselves be lured into the most ridiculous positions, avidly nosing their way like pigs
through the thick purple brush of a thistle, rolling around helplessly in a single peony’s
blond Medusa thatch of stamens…
Michael Pollon,
The Botany of Desire
The following was a farewell verse to his followers in Nagoya where he has stayed as their guest
Peony petals, deep within, the bee’s reluctance to part
牡丹蕊深く這い出るはちの別れ哉 botan shibe fukaku /hai-deru hachi no /wakare kana
Basho says, “I want to stay here forever.” He is the bee, Nagoya is the peony. He communicates his message through female body imagery. In case you think I am amplifying the sexuality,
consider Haruo Shirane’s translation:
From deep within
the peony pistils – withdrawing
regretfully the bee
Can’t leave the “bee” in there forever, can we?
And then Nobuyuki Yuasu’s:
Having sucked deep
in a sweet peony,
A bee creeps
out of its hairy recesses
OMG! (Neither “sucked” nor “hairy recesses” appears in the Japanese. Basho would not be so obvious.)
In the Deep North, in a town famous for growing safflowers and producing the orange-red dye used in make-up, Basho conceived a haiku he included in his journal A Narrow Path in the Heartlands.
Eyebrow brush is the vision I see safflowers
眉掃きを / 俤 に して / 紅の 花 Mayu haki o / omokage ni shite / beni no hana
The safflower stalk grows to waist-height and puts forth its orange-yellow thistle-like flower in July. Looking at the living flowers, Basho ‘sees’ into the future this bit of safflower substance applied to a woman’s eyebrow. In older Basho anthologies another verse appears together with this one:
In the future whose skin shall they touch? these safflowers
行くすえは / 誰が肌ふれん / 紅の花 Yuku sue wa / taga hada furen / beni no hana
Safflower dye was also used to color a woman’s under-kimono; a red under robe would be worn by a girl or young woman, not for a formal occasion but for a party. So here Basho ‘sees’ into the future, the female flesh this bit of dyestuff will touch and move over. He explores her body underneath her clothing. The connection between flowers and future eyebrow makeup is interesting, but between flowers and future undergarments is far more intimate, titillating, and fun.
The Basho Haiku Shuzei says,
“This is a verse by Chiyo-jo. It is not the Old Man’s style.”
The woman haiku poet Chiyo-jo was born nine years after Basho’s death and studied with his disciple Shiko. Okina, “Old Man,” is a pseudonym Basho often used. Donagon and Ichihashi, in their English collection of Chiyo-jo’s haiku do not include IN THE FUTURE since there is no evidence that she did write it – except that
she was a woman, so would know about a woman under her kimono – though in their notes they say the verse is “believed by some to be one of Chiyo-jo’s.”
Some scholar seems to have decided that the austere serious-minded Basho (in his imagination) would never have writen so erotic a verse as IN THE FUTURE. His opinion was published without supporting
evidence, and since then all the other scholars have fallen into line with this unsubstantiated rumor, calling the verse “authorship doubtful” and placing in the back of anthologies where no one notices it.
I think the verse is Basho’s style. He often looks into the past or the future to see what is hidden by time, and he often concentrates his attention on a woman’s body: for instance, this study of the female
body in L-4 Woman with Goddess
Long slender figure of a goddess so gracefully She wrings out red dye into the white rapids.
After visiting the Ise Shrine, Basho passes through the nearby town. Because of its association with the high holy shrine of Shinto, you might expect the place to be sanctimonious, off-limits to a brothel. But actually it was the reverse: the street before the shrine is packed with entertainment services, such as a “tea-house” where a prostitute might provide sex to customers who paid. A pilgrimage to Ise was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most Japanese men who went without their wives, and there was sake to take out inhibitions.
The same day, on the way back, we stop at a tea house where there is a woman named Butterfly.
Formerly the prostitute here but then taken by the owner to be his wife, she continues working in his business, using the skills she developed to stimulate customers so they come back for more.
“A haiku on my name, will you?” She hands me a piece of white silk where I write.
The situation fraught with sensuality: mature sexually experienced woman, her name, the piece of white silk she puts into Basho’s hand, her tempting request: あが名に発句せよ、Aga na ni hokku se yo; she sounds like that airline stewardess: “Hi, I’m Cheryl, fly me!” He responds in kind:
Orchid fragrance upon wings of Butterfly sniff the incense
蘭の香や / 蝶の翼に / 薫物す Ran no ka ya / chou no tsubasa ni / takimono su
One issue in this haiku is whether we see “butterfly” as a woman or as an insect (there is a difference.) You will notice I have prejudiced you to see the woman by using a capital “B” and not proceeding with “a” or “the.” (Remember I am trying to have fun here.) Even seen as an insect, it’s pretty sensual, but as a woman it is downright erotic.
After she saw Basho’s haiku, Butterfly said
“I used to the be the play-woman of this house, But now I have become the owner’s wife."
If we allow the outrageous notion that she considers Basho’s haiku to be a request for sexual favors – because that’s the sort of thing men said to her when they wanted sex – then her spoken response makes
complete sense: Butterfly is politely saying “No” and helping Basho understand why.
Plum or willow? beautiful young boys or women?
梅 柳 /さぞ 若衆 かな / 女 かな Ume yanagi / sazo wakashu kana / onna kana
Plum blossoms, bright and fragrant in freezing cold of early spring, represent the spring-like innocence of unspoiled youth without any sexual ‘heat.’ Willows, their long slender branches falling all around the trunk, appear as a woman with long hair concealing yet also suggesting her sexuality. In Japan from medieval times, the practice of pederasty, shudō (衆道), "the Way of the Young," was prevalent in the religious
community and samurai society. Basho, in 1682, says that men can choose whether to fulfill their desires with the smooth gentle bodies of young boys, or with women sexually blossoming.
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.
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
