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.
Summoned to the palace /ashamed by the gossip / Easing in / my slender forearm /for your pillow //宮に
めされし /うき名はずかし /手枕に /ほそき腕 を /さし入れて
Summoned to the palace
ashamed by the gossip
Easing in
my slender forearm
for your pillow
Complete Basho Renku Interpretations volume 5, p. 304
芭蕉連句全註解 ５巻：３０４
Miya ni mesareshi / uki na hazukashi Sora
24 宮 に めされし / うき名はずかし 曽良
皇族のお伽（交際）に召されての添い寝に、その折のことが噂になった恥ずかしいことだ。
Summoned to “attend on” (have sex with) the emperor, lying down with him,
ashamed by the gossip that arises.
Ta-makura ni / hosoki kaina o / sashi-irete Basho
25 手枕 に / ほそき 腕 を / さし入れて 芭蕉
「寝屋における女性は手枕にさし入れる細くしなやかな腕を通して
女性の顔つき、体つき、動作までも想像することができるであろう」。
－東明雅の『芭蕉の恋句』より、
“We imagine the form of a woman in the bedroom: her face, body,
and action of her delicately moving her forearm in to pillow his head."
from Higashi Akimasa’s Love Poetry of Basho
The Tale of Genji begins with a young woman “summoned” by the Emperor to become his favorite and bear him a son. Other court ladies, led by his senior consort, spread rumors to shame her so eventually she sickens and dies. Basho, however, aims for life, not death. The woman in his stanza, despite the gossip and the shame gossip brings, lies in bed beside him, carefully maneuvering her arm under his head without waking him, such is her delicacy, her devotion to touching him and moving around him with fineness and sensitivity. Basho empowers a woman to overcome bullying and shame by concentrating on her female power,
Although Basho’s stanza receives meaning from Sora’s stanza, it can also stand alone; instead of the emperor, the one this woman adores can be another man, or a woman or child. The verse is even more poignant if the child is sick. My friend Maureen says,
“EASING IN is a lovely verse. I hold it close. I remember spending time like this with
my own sleeping little girls, as well. Such a warm and loving moment.”
Higashi Akimasa, in his book The Love Poetry of Basho, says:
“This is a truly sensual verse. Looking back over the history of Japanese tanka and renku,
so daring a love verse is unusual, however should we not be a little surprised that the author
was Basho, said to be a paragon of wabi and sabi (loneliness and desolation)?”
Higashi does not answer his rhetorical question, however I will. The notion that Basho is a “paragon of wabi and sabi” is an illusion, based on a narrow selection of impersonal and lonely haiku. Once we broaden our selection to include his linked verses, we find him to be a paragon of romance, passion, and physical sensuality.
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.
