Bashō's Narrow Road: Spring and Autumn Passages

by Matsuo Bashō, Hiroaki Sato (Translator)

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 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.

Genres: Poetry, Japan, Classics, School, Literature, Japanese Literature, Nonfiction

186 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1996

About the author

Known Japanese poet Matsuo Basho composed haiku, infused with the spirit of Zen.

The renowned Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉) during his lifetime of the period of Edo worked in the collaborative haikai no renga form; people today recognize this most famous brief and clear master.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsuo_...

Reviews

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a difficult book to read, and much of it had to do with the platform I chose: an e-book.

I had wanted to read this for its pilgrimage narrative. I wasn't surprised it was a challenge--after all, it was originally written in a language and about a land I don't know, by the individual considered the master of haiku (which I also don't know much about). But that's why I chose this version, which is heavily annotated with footnotes and endnotes. Unfortunately, the e-book edition isn't equipped with links so the notes can easily be accessed from the text. Moreover, while the book contains a map outlining the journey that was taken, the map had poor resolution my my e-reader.

Since so many references were foreign to me due to time and place, having easy access to the notes would have made all the difference. As it was, I didn't know what the poet was talking about most of the time.

I did find the introduction to be helpful, explaining much about the nature of Japanese poetry. Much poetry-writing was undertaken as a group endeavor--much like a modern poetry slam, I imagine, except according to highly ritualized/stylized rules. Who knew?

[David Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

An elegant look at the physical and cultural landscape of Tokugawa Japan. The Narrow Road depicts a country steeped in poetry and legend, and lends insight to the labors and pastimes of its people.

At times, the density of footnotes and endnotes make reading slow and difficult. However, they are necessary to transmit the whole picture. The work of poets like Basho is at once minimalist and highly contextual; without a familiarity with Japanese poetic tradition, key references go by unmarked, and the resulting haiku are diminished.

In short, it is a difficult book to appreciate without an acquaintance with Japanese history, language, and geography. But the reward for careful reading is a portrait in words of a journey through a beautiful countryside.

[Serena Jampel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hereby refuse to read translated texts. Consider this my sworn statement. There is no way Basho's original work is that dry and lifeless. It just sounds like stage directions: I went here, we went there and so on forever. I was not a fan :(

[Books on Asia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The footnotes are amazing, lots of information about the references Basho uses in his travel diary, many I had never heard before.

[༺Kiki༻ · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you liked this book, you might also enjoy:

✱ The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa
✱ Moon Woke Me Up Nine Times: Selected Haiku of Basho

[Katharine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm glad I tried, but this book (this particular edition/translation/etc) might be better suited for reading as a part of a college course. The footnotes were difficult to bounce back and forth from, I hardly cared to address the end notes when they were mentioned, and reading romanized haiku was just kind of irritating... I think the author did a great job compiling all this research and knowledge... but maybe I was after a more enjoyable, rather than scholarly, read of this famous text. I may try again some day.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic

Truly a wonderful translation of a Japanese classic. I found the copious footnotes and endnotes distracting, rather than enhancing my reading experience. However, this was a lovely and educational read.

[Zoe · Rating 3 out of 5]

PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book of poetry.

[Richard Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be an occasionally entertaining book, but it is probably more useful as a resource for instruction than for pleasure reading.

TBH, I was disappointed when I got it out of the mail; I thought when I ordered it that it was a book just of haiku and linked verse, and that's in here, but that's just a small part of it. Most of it is a sort of travelogue across the north of Japan in 1689, with haiku (and related forms) sprinkled throughout. However, this work is famous and well worth reading just to become familiar with it--which got it to three stars in my estimation--but it wasn't until the last 20 pages that I liked it more than that. But lemme explain.

There are a lot of helps in this book, including a foreword, an introduction, a map, and an index, all of which are useful, and very complete notes on the lefthand side of every two-page spread, facing the full text on the right. All good stuff. But I'd be lying if I said it got me anywhere near full comprehension. Even with the notes, it feels like significant prior knowledge is expected, because I was often just as confused after as before. Your mileage may vary.

The travel diary isn't much to my taste. Mostly just stuff like "we visited a guy for three days and drank wine before we found a guide and went to the next town." The places he went to all had views or temple ruins or a grave or something that were famously, even before this, made the topic of poetry, but so much of the verse that he writes is alluding to earlier poetry that much of the meaning of it just has to be explained. That's always a problem in poetry in translation, but I really felt it here.

HOWEVER--the final twenty pages are a commentary on 36-part linked sequence of poetry (a separate work from the Narrow Road to the Interior text), and it makes the way haikai no renga works much clearer to me. And interesting. Here's my version of it, filled with errors.

Three writers take turns writing lines. The first basically writes a haiku, with syllables of 5/7/5, though it's usually written on a single line. The second person responds with a related pair of lines, with syllables of 7/7. The next writes a related group of 5/7/5 again, followed by 7/7. Each chunk needs to relate to the previous lines, but is supposed to change it or twist it. Each piece has to have something that fixes the season being mentioned (like cherry blossoms for spring and certain farm work for autumn, and so on) though this can be pretty abstract. Or it can be about love instead of a season. And there's a lot more, things like a prohibition of sticking too close to one topic for more than three or four links.

This one starts with "Renting a horse you follow the swallows as we part." The swallows spoken of in this way indicate autumn, and the lines are just suggestive of sadness in parting. The next line--"A field of flowers disturbed where the mountain turns"--just adds to the imagery of their departure. The flowers also show autumn, somehow. The third link mentions wrestling, the fourth a sword, and the fifth an otter, and there are subtle connections between every one. By the end, I was picturing the poetry like a dream, like animated images done in watercolors, each line erasing and reforming the previous image. Link 31 is "The slender figure of a goddess full of grace." Link 32 turns the goddess into a common woman washing clothes in a river. Link 33 switches to a famous battle that ended in a river, and line 34 is about a messenger sent to a temple that is related to the battle from the previous bit.

And so on.

The notes on this part are very helpful. It would mean nothing to me without. I see the hopelessness of ever trying to read such poetry without support; I wouldn't understand a tenth of it. And though it isn't the most satisfying way to read poetry, at least a reader can make sense of it this way and get a taste.

So that's how I got to 4 stars. More of the last part, please. That's what I'm looking for.

Recommended most for those studying this type of poetry. Less so for casual readers.

[Boo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rated three stars only because this was more than I could handle. It's apparently a very good, thorough, studious work on real Japanese haiku. I was left with the feeling that trying to understand haiku without speaking Japanese, and without knowing Japanese cultural and literary traditions, was pretty much a lost cause. Many of the concepts discussed have no equivalent in English language or literature. Also the great majority of haiku in this book are tied into special places in Japan: shrines, historic sites, places where folk tales happened. Even having a map of the journey doesn't really help. (Maybe a coffee table book with gorgeous photos of each site would have helped, but probably not.)

I'm now painfully aware that most English-language haiku are rather like a high school student trying to write a Shakespearean sonnet. Writing a short poem with a syllable count of 5-7-5 does not make a haiku. I started out reading all the footnotes, and ended up skimming the last half of the book. But no criticism of the author/translator. It was just too big a subject for me.

[WindySilver · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who isn't all too familiar with Japanese poetry, much less its history, I found this book an intriguing read. Basho's style of writing is captivating. The numerous footnotes did take away from the reading experience pacing-wise, although they are necessary to help readers understand the work better. I believe this would be much better on a re-read, however, with more understanding from the footnotes already in the background and with less pauses in reading when there's much less need for checking the footnotes.

Overall, a great read for anyone interested in Japanese literature both for the literature and the informative side of it.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matsuo Basho was a master of Japanese haiku and renga (a form where a group would get together and alternate turns composing lines of poetry). Basho went on a long trek to visit different important natural sites in Japan, and this work is his chronicle of that trek and the poetry he composed on the way. The title is often translated as “The Narrow Road to the Deep North” but here it is given as “The Narrow Road to the Interior”. This translation is heavily annotated which I found helpful as I knew very little about haiku or renga.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Something will always be lost in translation, and when it comes to haiku and renga, most things are probably lost in translation. This annotated version gets you a pretty well formed context, and teaches you about the nuance to the game that is communal poetry writing. It comes out best in the format that A Farewell Gift to Sora takes, commentary directly in-line.

The story takes you to a magical time and place where you walk alongside a humble spectator, and get glimpses of the divine and profane.

[Lucas Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more like a scholarly book about Basho's most famous work of travel writing and poetry, than a collection of his work or a general reader. I'm not giving Basho three stars, but this book was mostly footnotes and endnotes annotated Basho's work. It is actually a really impressive piece of literary scholarship, but I just wanted to read some haiku and descriptions of shrines. That was there, but I felt like I was skimming a lot of the notes.

[Alexander Spanksly · Rating 4 out of 5]

for my money... this is perfect poetry in the sense of it being a perfect poetic experience which Bashō goes through -- chizzling away at such honest poetry is the concept of replicating the experience of other poets and living their Uta-Makura's. Some of these sections could use a bit of decluttering by the translator but goddamn some of these moments are so deep!

[Chris Sudall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not easy, but a wonderful read all the same. Basho's poetry is both deep and witty and having read a lot of it it was a pleasure to read of his pilgrimage and the life/experiences that led to his work.
An essential read if you love Basho, if you don't you won't see this anyway!

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect model for the media and their fans!

[Kelly D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite what I thought it was going to be, but it was interesting.

[Punk · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the longest time I thought this was just the Spring and Autumn passages of Oku no Hosomichi (often translated as "Narrow Road to the Interior"), but on the back it claims to be the "complete work" and I compared it to Yuasa's translation and it's got all the same stuff. I don't know why the title is so odd (and skips summer) or why it's described as "sections" of ONH at the Haiku Foundation, but if I'd known it was the whole thing (is it the whole thing??), I would have read it much earlier, as I really enjoy Sato's work as a translator.

Oku no Hosomichi is haibun, a style of writing that combines poetic prose and poetry, and is, ostensibly, a travel journal, though we know Bashō took some liberties with that. Sato's introduction covers a lot of ground and provides context for the form and for this work in particular, and even takes a moment to address speculation that Bashō might have been a ninja, which is hilarious. A big map gives Bashō's route, though a bit of the journey is lost to the gutter. In the back there's an index of poets and where their poems are cited, but there's no index for Bashō's haiku, which might have been nice. This book also contains the renga sequence, "A Farewell Gift to Sora," composed while on this trip, and includes Sato's link by link explication, which is the only way I'm able to understand and appreciate renga, a collaborative poetic form so complicated it seems like something James T. Kirk made up to confuse an alien. It has a lot of rules.

Sato's prose is very modern, unencumbered by melodrama or stilted language, and it makes his translation feel almost weightless. The only conspicuous thing about it is when he gives literal translations of place names and suddenly it's all "Big Mountain" this and "Pine Hill of Sue" that. It's a little silly, like moving through a storybook, and I think I would have left those untranslated and addressed the literal meaning in a footnote rather than the other way around, as Sato does.

If you like footnotes, this is the book for you. It's approximately fifty percent footnote by volume, and I recommend reading it in paper, as it's a much smoother experience, with the translation of Bashō's work displayed on the right page and all the footnotes for that section on the facing page. Though they're in uncomfortably small print, and the romanization of the Japanese is in italics—making it even harder to read—it's easy to glance over and pick up any important context or read Sato's translation notes without interrupting the text with a lot of page turns. For the really deep cuts, the footnotes have footnotes.* The print book also presents the haiku in one line, precisely as Sato translated them, rather than introducing erroneous line breaks as the ebook does. All haiku are paired with a transliteration of the Japanese, but I wish the original Japanese had also been included.

As for the Narrow Road itself, I'm sad to say this, but it never really caught my interest. I know it's supposed to be one of the best examples of its kind, but I actually prefer the excerpts I've read from Bashō's Saga Nikki, which felt more like a travel journal with its little observations and personal musings whereas Oku no Hosomichi feels almost too smooth, like all the wobbly charm got buffed out of it in post-production. We know Bashō's was still revising—and rearranging—this long after his trip had concluded, and Sato dutifully points out all the places where Bashō's account differs from that of Sora, his travel companion, suggesting parts of Bashō's account were manufactured, and I hate to say it, but it does feel somewhat staged. As a travel journal, it's mostly just a laundry list of names and places and sly literary allusions with surprisingly little description of his surroundings. The haiku are wonderful, but I wanted more from the prose. Bashō just didn't take me with him on this journey. I guess I'll go sit with Shiki now.

3 stars for Bashō's prose and 4 stars for the haiku and Sato's work as a translator and footnote producer.

*(end notes, actually)

[Micah · Rating 5 out of 5]

In deutzia flowers I see Kanefusa’s white hair.

[Gabriel Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the face of it, a pellucid, unfussy translation. But Bashō, like all haiku poets worth considering, is a slippery, evasive travelling companion and any attempt at translation brings us no closer (or as close) to Bashō's intent than the famous "sound of water" made by the frog in one of his most famous poems. I've been puzzling over these 'koans' for years. I expect to continue to do so.

My rating relates to the translation and critical apparatus rather than to the actual poetry, by the way. The poetry is probably beyond a simple star rating.

[Lothe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sato's Basho, while sometimes prosaic, is no doubt the most thoroughly annotated of the many English translations of "Oku no Hosomichi."

[Jerin Tahapary]

O so poetic a travelogue time transcend such grace space zen touch.