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.
24 Basho portraits of female experience: 日本語もRomaji too
Legend:
Words of Basho in bold
Words of other poets not bold
“Basho shows an appreciation for women far beyond what we have been led to expect from a Japanese man of this era” said Bronagh, my research assistant from Ireland.
Historian Louis Perez expresses the standard view that in Japan, “the literary elite (which certainly includes Basho) scarcely alluded to commoner women at all, and if they did it was mainly in a pejorative sense” – yet Basho wrote hundreds of poems – a few haiku but many. many renku – praising women, I believe the earliest and most numerous, diverse, and insightful praise in world literature.
For this article I have chosen 24 Basho poems – seven haiku, 15 single stanzas of renku by Basho, and two stanza-pairs in which Basho wrote both in succession -- all of these to validate Bronagh’s insight rather than the standard view. Here are no stanzas by any poet other than Basho; I have sought single stanzas which suffice by themselves, without the adjoining stanzas in the renku sequence, and also without the more extensive commentaries I have provided elsewhere in the category Praise for Women. Also I have provided links which you can click on for a fuller discussion of a verse or its theme.
May these brief sketches empower women and girls worldwide, as well as deepen men’s appreciation for the power and integrity of women throughout time. To change Basho’s reputation away from “impersonal nature poet” to “poet empowering women” makes him part of the Resistance working for a humane POTUS and Senate.
Giving birth to love in the world, she adorns herself
世の愛を / 産みけん人の / 御粧 Yo no ai o / umiken hito no / onyosui
A women makes herself beautiful before giving birth to the child she loves.
The "endless desire and inbuilt passion for visionary women to express their passion for pageantry."
吾顔の / 母に似たるも / ゆかしくて waga kao ni / haha ni nitaru mo / yukashikute
As Gregor Mendel studied peas to discover the nature of inheritance, Basho studies the human face, and is fascinated by descent through the female line.
手枕に / ほそき腕を / さし入れて Ta-makura ni / hosoki kaina o / sashi irete
Lying in bed beside him and maneuvering her hand and arm into the space beneath his neck, watching his face for any signs of awakening, she epitomizes the gentle, caring nature of woman’s love.
Basho wrote the following haiku at Hase Temple, a famous place of pilgrimage for women to pray to Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy:
Night in spring - one hidden in mystery temple corner
春の夜や / 籠り人ゆかし / 堂の隅 Haru no yo ya / komori hito yukashi / dou no sumi
Over there, in a corner, someone barely seen in faint lantern light sits in communion with the Goddess.Who is she?Why has she come here alone at night? What is she praying for? By making a poem about the hidden woman, Basho eulogizes her; she becomes eternal.
名月や / 海にむかえば / 七小町 Meigetsu ya / umi ni mukaeba / nana Komachi
As the bright full moon passes over Lake Biwa from eastern mountains to western mountains,
each position of moon gives a different scene. Basho imagines the succession of scenes as seven stages in a woman’s life: for many women these are infancy, school girl, lover, mother, elder, crone, and second infancy. We join with him in conceiving the life of a woman as divine.
Arising to blow on embers, the wife of a bell ringer
おきて火をふく/ かねつきがつま Okite hi o fuku / kanetsuki ga tsuma
Her husband wakes up the town, but Basho has eyes only for the wife, getting up in the freezing winter dawn to, like a goddess, wake up the hearth fire with her breath. She may be blowing directly onto the coals, or through a bamboo tube. Throughout the ages in every land before gas, electricity, timers, sensors, remote and automatic controls, women have gotten up early to awaken the fire as the wife does here. She is eternal, a goddess of fire, proclaimed by bells.
How he huddles under the futon, cold horrible night
被き伏す / 蒲団や寒き / 夜やすごき
Kazuki-fusu /futon ya samuki / yo ya sugoki
The alliteration of ‘h’ sounds contains the feeling of huddling, lying curled up on one side, holding in the warmth around the chest and abdomen. Getting between the quilts, shivering till my old blood warms the space so I can sleep. All alone where she used to lie nearby. The nights long and bitter, and sun brings no warmth till late morning. Basho captures the experience of anyone who has lost a spouse in winter.
Though my thoughts
are of love, “eat something!” she commands me
物 おもふ /身 に もの 喰え と/ せつかれて Mono omou / mi ni mono kue to / setsukarete
A teenage girl: “the turmoil of young love takes away all my appetite, but mother insists I eat, to build up my body.Why can’t she understand that I cannot eat while this turmoil rages within me?Mother, stop bugging me!” The “generation gap” in Japan 300 years ago.Daughter thinks about love while mother about nutrition, so no meeting of minds. May this help each see the other point of view
Drunk on blossoms woman wearing man’s jacket puts in a sword
花に酔えり / 羽織着て刀 / さす女 Hana ni yoeri / haori kite katana /sasu onna
She borrows a padded haori coat from a man and puts it on over her kimono, adding some bulk to her chest, shoulders, and arms, making her look manly. At a working class party are no samurai and no swords, but she pretends with something long and thin. She inserts it under her obi, the thick brocade sash around her waist. Then she does the ever-popular “Hey you guys! See how long my sword is” sending the party into hysterics. Woman having fun.
Crone waves a fan over the food she cooked cool evening ease
飯あふぐ / 嬶が馳走や / 夕涼み
Meshi augu / kaka ga chisou ya / yuu suzumi
The peasant returns from working in the summer fields, Watching his “beloved wife” (aisai) “bestow her heart” (kokoro tsukai) on the food, he enjoys the evening cool and waits for the food.” Basho scholar Kon Eizo recognizes the psychic energy, the love, the old woman bestows on the food as she waves her fan over it. The scholar reveals that this is a love poem, not the love of young people at the beginning of their search, but the love of an old couple near the end.
This is Basho’s Mona Lisa, his most graceful hidden woman. With delicacy and precision he highlights a single moment in the flow of a working woman’s life. She is the Center.
Weaving folded, at back door she lights flower incense
機たたむ / 妻戸に花の / 香を焼きて Hata tatamu / tsumado ni hana no / ko o yakite
Finishing an piece of fabric she has woven on a loom, she folds it neatly, then goes to the door between kitchen and outdoors to light some incense and make the kitchen fragrant.
Soundly so soundly the babe in remembrance is put to sleep
つくづくと / 記念のややを / 寝させ置き Tsuku zuku to / katami no yaya o / nekase oki
The baby is a memento of her husband who has died. The two kinds of sleep – nocturnal and eternal – blend in Basho’s stanza. Putting the child down, she wonders if in sleep baby will travel to that other world to be with father.
Cherries in bloom again she climbs the hill to his grave
はな咲けて / また来てのぼる / 塚の上 Hana sakete / mata kite noboru / tsuka no ue
Each year in this season she comes here to climb the hill of her grief.
“Lingering on. . .” she takes down the doll and looks at her face, Again starting to weep the cough of consumption
名残ぞと / 取置 雛の / 顔をみて /
また泣入りし / 労咳のせき
Nagori zo to / tori oku hina no / kao o mite
mata naki irishi / rougai no seki
A woman dying of tuberculosis looks at the doll she played with long ago and remembers her healthy youth. Or a mother whose daughter lingers on with the disease recalls her childhood. Or perhaps the daughter has died, but memories linger on of that horrible hacking cough.
Only my face by rice seedling mud is not soiled Breastfeeding on my lap what dreams do you see?
顔ばかり / 早苗の泥に / よごされず/ 乳をのむ膝に / 何を夢みる
Kao bakari / sanae no doro ni / yogosarezu
chi o nomu hiza ni / nan o yume miru
This young peasant woman emerges from the fertile paddy to nourish her child from her breasts. Her entire body is soiled with mud, but still she tries to keep her face clean, for baby to behold. As the tiny mouth sucks her nipple, she gazes at the eyes and forehead to see the dreams within.
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.
