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.
Here are twice as many love poems as in article C-1, enough poems to overwhelm you and drive out any notions you have of Basho being austere or detached or impersonal. Enjoy.
Basho did write a few haiku on romantic love, but these are not so interesting. To experience his vision of lovers in love, we must look into his linked verse: first here as a single stanza by itself:
Easing in her slender forearm for his pillow
Lying in bed beside him, carefully maneuvering her arm under his head without waking him, gazing at his face watching for any signs of waking, such is her kindness and devotion. For Higashi Akimasa's comments on this stanza see article C-1. A single stanza, without the baggage of the previous stanza, can apply to a wide range of circumstances: EASING IN can be a woman with her lover, either male or female, but can also be a mother with her beloved child. On the other hand, together with the stanza that spawned it, the meaning is more specific:
Summoned to the palace ashamed by the gossip
Easing in her slender forearm for his pillow
Sora was writing about the rivalries among court ladies at the Imperial Palace, and we recall the opening chapter of the Tale of Genji where the Emperor summons a young woman, Kiritsubo, to his bed, but other ladies, led by his senior consort, the Kokiden Lady, spread rumors about her; being women themselves, they know exactly what to say to shame a young woman, and she eventually sickens and dies. Basho, however, chooses life, not death. In spite of the gossip about her and the shame she feels, this woman manages to love the Emperor with all the gentleness in her heart. Basho empowers women to overcome bullying and shame by concentrating on her feminine power both delicate and sensual.
Face of farm wife chattering on and on
Smell of garlic cannot be approached yet still in love
The season is mid-summer; garlic is eaten to keep away mosquitoes.
Basho sees beyond stereotypes to the endless diversity of human character and relationships.
The boss pretends not to see their love yet he knows
Figures half hidden behind the umbrella
Walking together in town, the lovers are surprised to see her (or their) boss coming the other way. He is cool and does not say a word, but her Japanese heart shrinks with haji -- shyness, bashfulness, embarrassment.” Haji is the Sun Goddess hiding in her Rock Cave or any woman today covering her mouth or eyes with her hand. Here she clutches the handle to make the umbrella cover as much as possible without any movements that might make the boss look. Miyawaki Masahiko, in Basho’s Verses of Human Feeling, says,
This is probably the only following stanza that so well expresses the sense of shame
A daughter named San, afterwards, her thoughts of love
This is the robe she wore when she was with him. Irises in clothing in storage keep away bugs, but her thoughts here are more romantic. Hidden in the link is the teenage girl’s experience of first love.
From threads so slender love becomes intense --
Though my thoughts are of love, “eat something!” she commands me
Kyokusui speaks of any age or gender, how love starts out simple but somehow becomes “intense.” Basho switches to the first person with a stanza that makes the most sense if she is a teenage girl. “Although the turmoil of young love takes away all my appetite, mother insists I eat, to build up my slender body. Why can’t she understand that I cannot eat while this turmoil rages within me? Mother, stop bugging me!”
History books never tell us about the conflicts between mothers and adolescent daughters long ago, so we look to Basho’s linked verse for information. 300 years ago or today, the daughter is concerned only with love, the mother with nutrition, so there is no meeting of minds. May this stanza-pair be a lens through which mothers and daughters realize both sides of their inter-generational conflict.
Giving birth to love in the world, she adorns herself
The Complete Interpretative Anthology of Basho Renku comments: “Basho speaks of the beautiful form of mother giving birth to a child who receives the love and affection in the world.”
In these scribbles I see ... is the name of your darling
In graffiti written on the wall at an inn, I see a woman’s name written with so deep a love that it is visible in the scribbles. I smile at this evidence of love in someone I have never met nor ever will – as I speak Basho’s stanza across the barriers of space, time, and circumstances to the writer of the scribbles. In the long pause in the middle segment is Basho’s consciousness of love.
Cherries in bloom again I climb the hill to his grave
Each year when cherry blossoms are in bloom, she comes here and climbs the hill of her grief.
Wretched in love
little sister gazes at the evening sky
In those clouds, whose tears are contained?
Big brother’s question really has no meaning, but may somehow console the lovesick sister.
Winter solstice on porch my desperation for love!
No matter how I make up and dress he gazes not back
The Sun at its most distant point from us, his heart so distant from mine, how my desperation increases. I use all my skill with cosmetics and clothing, and look at him with all the charm I can muster, yet he does not return my gaze.
Traces of snow cleared off by the wind, moon in haze
Her futon rolled up she dreams of love
She sits on the floor mat leaning against the futon –in evening, still rolled-up -- wondering about, wishing for love. The futon behind her pelvis suggests what is rolled up inside that pelvis.
Blackwood smoldering shack hidden in a hollow
To whom can she be given as a bride? her thoughts of love
Blackwood burns slowly, giving off dark smoke which accumulates over the walls, ceiling, and inhabitants in this shack in a mountain hollow where the sun never shines. Who will marry a girl so grimy with soot and rickets from vitamin D deficiency?
In a haze he worships beauty of female form
From the far north the groom a frustrated wordless butterfly
A groom has been adopted from the far north where there are no attractive women but many bears. Able to speak a few words of Japanese, frustrated in trying to communicate with his bride; he just stands there, “a wordless butterfly in a haze” gazing as the beauty he has been given.
Writing a letter to his first beloved, his hand falters
Accustomed to the world the monk makes its risqué
Hormones confuse the youth's eye-hand skills so he cannot manage the elegant phrases and calligraphy to impress her. He asks a monk to write the letter for him, but the monk being experienced in these matters, writes in sexual allusions the boy cannot understand -- though the girl might.
With her wide open eyes she can get a thousand koku
Before he vanishes she grabs his stirrip
She knows how to use her eyes to charm a man. A 1000 koku is a decent income for a samurai, not great, but livable. Her chance for 1000 koku about to ride off into the distance, she acts boldly and vigorously to keep him here.
Not letting on his boots rain falls at day break
As they part, ever so delicate and fascinating
“Stay, stay, stay – just a little bit longer.” She has a delicacy and fascination which makes men feel protective and want to stay with her.
In her haste nowhere can she find the lamp oil
She steps on his boil so parting is wretched
She has the lantern but stumbles about in the dark searching for the bamboo flask of oil. Then she steps on his boil, which is excruciatingly painful for him. When finally he leaves, they do not feel so comfortable with each other.
Village showers bisexuals go crazy either way
People die for love the wind makes a sound
Water flowing on sleeves cannot put out the great fire
“Showers” are rain that fall suddenly and unexpectedly, and stop soon, leaving us drenched and cold, suggesting ejaculation. Basho says that even with only heterosexual relations, people die for love -- so the wind makes a sound. As we put up our hands to cover our eyes when we cry, tears fall on our kimono sleeves, so “water flowing on sleeves” means tears. The great fire, whapped to a frenzy by the wind, could not be put out by the tears, so someone died. This was written in 1665; the great Meireki fire burned down Edo nine years earlier.
She grabs some bran to wash oil from her hands
The bill collector, if only he had such a heart of love
Japanese, both men and women, applied camellia oil to their hair so it would be glossy and hold a style.
The hairdresser uses rice bran to remove this oil from her hands. The bill collector needs a physical, sensory, feminine “heart of love” rather than that masculine heart of money.
Oh so many disappointments assail me
The mirror reflects my laughing face
Sunk in misery, she make a laughing face, actually a grimace, into the mirror, a mockery of laughter, which the mirror reflects.
My beloved sends me this letter I rip to shreds!
The face of a demon I cry at the sight
Unable to endure the message in the letter, I tear it up, then am shocked to see in the mirror the demon of my jealousy.
Wretched in the dew my wife’s fallen hair,
Speaking to her in the mirror her face still I can see
Fallen hair” means the wife has died – for a woman’s hair contains her life force. “Dew” is the forces of wetness that rust, corrode, and wear out all things. She looked in the mirror so often it holds a copy of her face – or maybe the husband and wife were so in tune with each other that their faces came to resemble each other.
While crossing this river I meet my deceiver
From the Deep North a thousand to pull the rock which is his heart
Who shall pick up the love I am throwing away?
I meet him by chance on a ferry boat; the situation is not very comfortable for either of us, although the river goes on flowing. The rock so heavy it can only be moved by a thousand men pulling on ropes tied around it; so I can never bring his heart to mine. With no possibility of fulfillment, I can only throw away the love I feel.
Basho wrote both of these stanzas n succession, so they are the equivalent of a tanka:
Although summer neck sinks into collar thinking of love An account of my prayers shows they are worthless
Basho expresses emotions through physical actions of specific body parts; “her neck sinks into her collar” is a physical sensory avenue to her inner feelings: not only is she disappointed by the failure of gods and Buddha to fulfill her desires: she no longer believes they listen at all, or that they even exist.
She waits in vain upon words hard as nails false and cold
With her sleeve she sweeps dew from her forelocks
His clear definite promises – “hard as nails” –were all a sham; his heart was never in the words. She can wait here forever; he does not care. As things get cold in autumn, dew is heavy – but “dew” here means “tears” and also impermanence and disappointment, wearing out and decaying all things, both living and non-living, so the young grow old and bitter. Basho’s verb in Japanese is more than simply “wiping away” the tears, but rather a bold and vigorous “sweeping away” of all that heaviness.
Taro patch torn up, the wild boar returns
Child of poverty learns to wait for love in the autumn wind
Wild boars are stout, heavy, ungentle beasts with vicious tusks. The tuber taro grows in patches of enormous flappy leaves shaped like elephant-ears. The boar really wants the underground starchy corms – however the leaves get in the way. The mess of ragged and torn elephant-ear leaves suggests, to Basho, the turmoil in the heart of one who waits in vain for love. His stanza -- with or without the wild boar one -- goes out to all impoverished youths who learn to wait for love in a thin jacket allowing in the chill wind.
As the owl comes out from hiding to grasp love
Her tears shall compare to horse chestnuts falling
The daughter in a box hides in her house, as an owl hides in the forest, occasionally heard but never seen, until she emerges swiftly on silent wings to discover love. Basho is pessimistic: she will only find sorrow. Horse chestnuts are large, bulky, and misshapen.
With her heart? she writes his name in cursive script
Turning aside from lantern, faces hide from each other
The Japanese says she writes his name (either writing with actual ink, or making the forms with her finger) in kana (actually hiragana) the cursive and phonetic Japanese writing used by women; ordinarily a man’s name would always be written in formal Chinese characters or kanji. So long as his name is in kanji, he remains in the male world; by writing it in kana, she brings him into her female world. Either he is her lover, or the one she desires to be her lover. She cannot possess him now, but by forming the letters of his name in feminine cursive style, she does “with her heart” possess him.
Basho brings the him and her together, but “hiding from each other.” Teenagers, being new to the world of sexuality, feel shame (or embarrassment or shyness) at being seen by a possible lover. His stanza abounds with physical space and body parts in complicated action – yet is a sketch, a few brush strokes and lots of blank space for us to fill in from imagination. Each of the two faces turns away from the light, and also away from the other. Basho sketches the physical components of the shame so crucial in the Japanese mind and throughout this “shame culture”: he seems to see this sort of shame in both young female and young male.
I am one person in a floating world of love
When I try to speak of this desire, only stutter
The term "floating world" is very common in Japanese culture and poetry; it suggests the transcience
of reality: how everything we have disappears. If only two people could be together in a 'floating world' of love, then the two of them would ride the waves of change together -- however one person alone must go through changes in one direction, while the other goes through different changes. Basho's stanza is rather abstract, then Ranran goes for the body and physical activity. "One person" tries to tell the other of the love felt in heart, but the intensity of feeling makes the mouth stutter. (Stuttering occurs mostly in males (although one prominent female, Marilyn Monroe, had this problem).
Comes a dream of woman cutting her jet black hair
Love seen through, moon over morning glories
Disappointed in love, she cuts her hair, and her spirit sends this message to his dreams. She sees through the false love she thought was real, realizing that such love disappears as surely as the moon fades into the morning sky and gorgeous blue morning glories wilt to become refuse in the rain.
So many changes have occurred in my love affairs
In this floating world all end as Komachi
Ono no Komachi, said to be the most beautiful women Japan ever produced, ended up a lonely old hag. She went from having plenty of hot romances to none at all. She regrets the loss of those attributes which used to bring her love.
Pines require good soil drainage, preferring sandy soils, so they often grow near the sea where they suffer furious winds.
Waves cover the rock then they reveal it
As the pines are battered and twisted such is love
The ‘rock’ is his heart -- one minute clear and trustworthy, the next minute hidden and unreliable. The turmoil in my heart as he keeps on changing signals is what the pines close to the sea endure during storms. This Basho is so passionate!
The Japanese for “pine,” matsu, also means “to wait” i.e. “to pine,” so poems on pine trees often suggest waiting for love, and the double meaning works in English as well
The Sun sets then Moon shines between
the waiting pines
More than laughter tears are consoling
After the sun sets on a romance, the moonlight is the passion that remains between two hearts. Basho makes sunshine laughter and moonlight tears. Instead of joking to cheer up the one sunk in misery, it is better to speak of the loss, and allow tears to console – for a new day will come with sun rising through the pine forest.
Green willow her hips and hair like willows
Tired of waiting wind through the pines also is yearning
Her hips and hair, as slender and flexible as willow branches covered with young green leaves sway sensually in the wind. She waits for a lover who does not show, her unfulfilled desire so intense it fills the wind.
Are these pines on Love Cape? the daughter’s wedding ornament
Her vows everlasting as divine shining snow
Not an actual place name, “Love Cape” describes a long narrow strip of land jutting out into the embracing sea. The wedding ornament on a stand resembles an island, symbolically the isle of eternal youth, with a arrangement of pine, bamboo, and plum, which do not wither in winter, so they represent strength and, perseverance, the qualities expected of a wife. The daughter’s marriage vows are as sincere as fresh snow is pure white; may they last as long as the pine tree, said to live for a thousand years.
Among the pines each pair of lovers lies in the cemetery, their vows to share wings and entwine branches in the end become thus, the sadness overwhelming Whoever we are or how sincere our vows, all end in the cemetery.
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.
