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  >  Bilingual Basho 日本語も  >  H-21


Can I Trust You?

たのむ便より

 Now to this brothel my body has been sold I entrust you with a letter I wrote, mirror polisher

此ごろ室に / 身を売られたる /  文書いて / たのむ便よりの / 鏡とぎ 


Most “play-women” in this era were young village girls indentured to a brothel to save the family from financial ruin. Brokers went to areas struck by famine, searching for “bargains.” Girls were told they were going to the City to be maids or waitresses, but then were forced, from age 12 or 13, to have sex, sometimes with brutal or insulting men, and were beaten if they refused or tried to escape.

 

この時代のほとんどの「遊女」は、家族を経済的破滅から救うために売春宿に入れら れた若い村の女の子でした。ブローカーは飢饉に見舞われた地域に行き、「掘り出し 物」を探しました。女の子がメイドやウェイトレスになるために街に行くと言われた が、12 歳または 13 歳から、時には残忍な男性や侮辱的な男性と毎晩セックスを強い られたと説明しています。彼らが拒否したり逃げようとしたりした場合は殴打され, いためつけられました。

 

Now to this brothel
my body has been sold
Can I trust you
with a letter I wrote,
mirror polisher

 

Basho Renku Zenchukai 芭蕉連句全註解 vol. 6: p. 275 22

 

此ごろ室に / 身を売られたる 路通 このごろ播磨の室津に遊女として身をうられた私は。。。

23 文書いて / たのむ便よりの / 鏡とぎ 芭蕉 手紙を書いて鏡磨の職人に出してもるのを頼んだことだ。

 

Kono goro muro ni / mi o uraretaru                           Rotsu

Bun kaite / tanomu tayori no / kagami togi                 Basho

 

“Play-women,” despite their gorgeous kimono and make-up, were prisoners. Although some did enjoy this life, and managed to rise in the “profession” to become comfortable or even rich, and some were purchased by a wealthy customer, MOST either died young, often from syphilis —the average age of death of courtesans has been calculated as 21-22 years — or grew old working on the “fringes of the sex and alcohol trade.” Now to this brothel my body has been sold Can I trust you with a letter I wrote? mirror polisher Rotsu states reality: young village girls were sold to the brothel for a money loan –the system set up so she can never pay off the loan, and will remain in slavery till her death.

 

Basho gives her a message she wishes to send in a letter –this may be to her guy back in the village, the boy she knew since childhood and just began to love when she was taken away. She has no way to get her letter out without the brothel seeing it, so she asks the man polishing her mirror if he will post it outside (without telling his employer). The mirror in Japan has been for a thousand years associated with the Sun Goddess Amaterasu; being round and shiny, a mirror was considered a ‘child of the sun.’ Shinto teaches that sin is not original or ingrained. We are clear inside, but sins gather on us the way dust gathers on a mirror. To restore the original purity, all we must do is wipe the dust from the mirror.

 

In Basho’s day, mirrors were bronze-plated with an amalgam of mercury (as in the dental fillings of my childhood). In time the plating got cloudy. Mirror polishers were craftsmen who grinded the surface on a whetstone, and polished with mildly acidic fruit juice, to restore the original clarity – so let us imagine him as a servant of the Sun Goddess, one who can be trusted to protect a woman’s privacy. Every time she looks into the mirror he polished to do her hair or make-up, she will imagine him, the carrier of her message, her beloved reading the letter, and the holy Sun shining with Hope for her freedom. Here is Basho’s genius in all fullness, his deepest penetration into the vulnerable heart: “Can I trust you?” – the question women ask silently of every man.

 

遊女は、豪華な着物と化粧にもかかわらず、囚人でした。何人かはこの人生を楽しん で、快適に、あるいは金持ちになるために「職業」に昇進し、ほとんどは若くして、 しばしば梅毒で亡くなりました。平均死亡年齢は 21〜22 歳と計算されます。または、 「性とアルコールの取引の片棒担ぎ」に取り組んで年を取りました。 路通は現実を述べている:若い女の子はお金のローンのために売春宿に売られました -彼女が決してローンを完済することができないように設定されたシステムは死ぬま で奴隷状態にとどまらせます。芭蕉は手紙で送りたいメッセージを彼女に与えます。 これは村に幼い頃から知っていて愛し始めた少年への手紙かもしれない。彼女は売春 宿で誰にも見られずに手紙を出す方法がないので、彼女は鏡を磨いている職人に、彼 が手紙を外に出すかどうかを尋ねます。

 

日本の鏡は千年もの間、天照大神と関係がありました。丸くて光沢があるので、鏡は 「太陽の子」と見なされていました。神道は、罪は独創的でも根深いものでもないこ とを教えています。私たちは中がはっきりしていますが、鏡にほこりが集まるように 罪が私たちに集まります。元の純度に戻すには、鏡からほこりを拭き取るだけです。 芭蕉の時代、鏡は水銀が混ぜられた青銅でメッキされていました。やがてメッキが曇 ると、鏡とぎは元の透明度を復元するため砥石で表面を磨き、弱酸性の果汁で磨きま す。彼女は彼を太陽の女神の 僕 しもべ であり女性のプライバシ-において信用するに値す る人と思っています。彼女が髪や化粧をするために彼が磨いた鏡を見るたび、彼が手 紙を運んだり、村の愛人が手紙を読んだり、そして希望で輝く彼女の自由の聖なる太 陽を想像するでしょう。これが芭蕉の天才であり、女性の心への彼の最も深い浸透で す。「私はあなたを信頼できますか?」と女性がすべての男性に黙って尋ねています。

 

The Three Thirds of Basho   
                      
 芭蕉の三分一の三っつ

 
  円/楕円:    Haiku
Journals
Essays

 

 

 

 

                    

円/楕円: Letters

Spoken
word
円/楕円: Linked verse
Tanka
                                                                                                   

 

 

                                                    

 

 

 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.  

 

                                          女性と子供達、友人や愛や同情をかんじて、

何百もの句を残し心暖かい芭蕉を広く公開しましょう。

最高の女性の味方、子供目線、そして人生の応援歌ではないでしょうか

 

For a menu of 300 Basho articles, see

www.basho4humanity.com/topic-description.php?ID=1525955995

 

For the entire series of Bilingual Essays, see

https://www.basho4humanity.com/topic-category.php?Cat=15

 

For “Letters from Basho” including translation of 60 letters, see

https://www.basho4humanity.com/topic-category.php?Cat=14

 

For Basho’s ultimate masterpiece, the tanka SPRING PASSES BY, see

https://www.basho4humanity.com/topic-description.php?ID=1525958016

 

 

Feedback will be greatly appreciated:

basho4humanity@gmail.com

 

 

 

 






<< Though my Thoughts (Renku) (H-20) (H-22) Everyone of You >>


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