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.
In 1692, 100 years before feminism began in Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication for the Rights of Women, Basho in his patriarchal society produced this exquisitely feminist poem:
Only my face
by rice-seedling mud is not soiled - Breastfeeding on my lap what dreams do you see?
乳をのむ膝に / 何を夢みる 顔ばかり/ 早苗の泥に / よごされず
Chi o nomu hiza ni / nan o yume miru kao bakari / sanae no doro ni / yogosarezu
She emerges from the fertile mud to nourish her child from her breasts. This young peasant woman’s entire body is soiled and roughened by everyday dirt and mud, with only hard mineral-laden water for washing. Still, she tries to keep her face clean and pretty, for baby to behold. Has any other male poet produced so exquisitely feminine a poem? Feminine in concern for facial beauty and cleanliness, the strength of women at work, women with breasts, women nourishing life, and women’s hopes for children’s future, all wrapped up in five short lines.
The Japanese includes no personal pronouns, and could be translated with "her face" and "her lap,"
however I instead use "my" (and Japanese Language Instructor Shoko affirms that this is altogether acceptable) to make the poem is a personal communication between woman and baby, a prayer that her child will escape the constant work and ever-present grime of village life to a bright and prosperous future.
In Vindication for the Rights of Women, Mary Wollstonecraft says:
I wish to persuade women to endeavor to acquire strength, both mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness.
Some Basho verses do portray women's "suceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinment of taste," and might be condemned by Wollstonecraft as "epithets of weakness" -- but this verse on rice-planting and breastfeeding rather focuses on the physical earthy strength of women giving life.
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.
