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.
Over sun-bleached whites / 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
Over sun-bleached whites
lark sings to the sky
Girls only
going to view blossoms
rise in a flock
Basho Renku Zenchuukai： volume 9: p. 219
芭蕉連句全註解 ９巻：２１９
Sarashi no ue ni / hibari saezuru Rikyu
34 晒の上に / ひばり囀る 利牛
単層の綿布が日差しの中で一列にぶら下がっています。 頭上で雲雀が明るく歌い、天国に昇ります。
Single layer cotton cloth hangs on a line in the sunshine; overhead a lark sings brightly rising to heaven.
Hanami ni to / onago bakari ga / tsuretatete Bashō
35 花見にと /女子ばかりが /つれ立て 芭蕉
若い女の子のグループが一緒に一緒に走って桜を楽しみましょう
A group of young girls run together to have fun viewing cherry blossoms.
Basho transforms the energy of sunshine and bird song into the sparkling joy of young human females.
The Complete Anthology of Classical Japanese Literature says “girls usually not allowed to go outside, immersed in the feeling of freedom upon release after such a long time.” Here are only girls, so no males to dominate or marginalize them, no female accommodation to male nonsense, just girls being themselves. In their pretty robes, they go to have fun, chatting with and making each other laugh, and so they complement the clarity and freshness of the first stanza. Clean white fabric, skylark, cherry blossoms, and group of girls, all get high together.
As Helen Keller said: “One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”
Soon after he wrote this link, Basho described the Lightness of a poem such as this:
Now in my thoughts the form of poetry is as looking into a shallow stream over sand,with Lightness both in the body of the verse as well as in the heart’s connection.
Ima omou tei wa asaki suna-gawa o miru gotoku, ku no kata, tsuke-gokoro tomo ni karuki nari
Lightness means having no heavy or dark associations, no sadness or desolation to drag down the reader, like the clarity of water gently flowing over sand. Scholars focus on the Heaviness of Basho’s “impersonal, detached, and objective” haiku, but I prefer the Lightness and joy of the ‘heart’s connections’ he forms with his renku about women and girls.
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.
