Basho's Narrow Road: Spring and Autumn Passages
Sign in to keep track of books you’ve read and want to read.
Matsuo Basho(1644-94) is considered Japan's greatest haiku poet. Narrow Road to the Interior(Oku no Hosomichi) is his masterpiece. Ostensibly a chronological account of the poet's five-month journey in 1689 into the deep country north and west of the old capital, Edo, the work is in fact artful and carefully sculpted, rich in literary and Zen allusion and filled with great insights and vital rhythms. In Basho's Narrow Road: Spring and Autumn Passages, poet and translator Hiroaki Sato presents the complete work in English and examines the threads of history, geography, philosophy, and literature that are woven into Basho's exposition. He details in particular the extent to which Basho relied on the community of writers with whom he traveled and joined in linked verse (renga) poetry sessions, an example of which, A Farewell Gift to Sora, is included in this volume. In explaining how and why Basho made the literary choices he did, Sato shows how the poet was able to transform his passing observations into words that resonate across time and culture.
Liked Basho's Narrow Road: Spring and Autumn Passages? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked Basho's Narrow Road: Spring and Autumn Passages. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
-
Matsuo Bashō Shares poetry, Japan, japanese -
Japanese Haiku: Its Essential Nature and History Shares poetry, Japan -
The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan Shares poetry, Japan, japanese -
100 Poems from the Japanese Shares poetry, Japan, japanese
