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Haiku Journey: Basho's the Narrow Road to the Far North and Selected Haiku
Verse and prose observations of a seventeenth-century writer during his travels through Japan
111 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1982
About the author
Matsuo Bashō
311 books619 followersKnown 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_...
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_...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
November 25, 2018
This was my first exposure to the classic Japanese poet, Matsuo Basho, and to his speciality "haiku". I really liked it. I think now that I might read more haiku!
April 28, 2018
Beautiful, beautiful!! The beginning gives a brief overview of Basho's life and the historical context. Then, the prose quickly drops into Basho's pilgrimage. It's told in little scenes, each one devoted to a location along his journey. There are many little poems included when the mood is right.
This is a darling little book for anyone who enjoys reading travelogues & especially for anyone planning a trip to Japan today. ^.^
This is a darling little book for anyone who enjoys reading travelogues & especially for anyone planning a trip to Japan today. ^.^
November 25, 2015
I quite liked this interpretation of Bashō, either 1) if you already have some other edition, or 2) if you just want the "feel" of the work rather than a careful or literal translation.
The author explains in the introduction that she altered the text to provide more explanation and information about context and connections in the original, rather than use footnotes. The consequence of this is that changes to the text are not clear when you are reading it, as they would be if footnotes were used.
Nevertheless, much of the additional information she provides is well-warranted, can be appreciated by the reader, and is also illuminating in comparison to other translations. In addition, Bashō's entire original Japanese text is present in the back of the book.
The author explains in the introduction that she altered the text to provide more explanation and information about context and connections in the original, rather than use footnotes. The consequence of this is that changes to the text are not clear when you are reading it, as they would be if footnotes were used.
Nevertheless, much of the additional information she provides is well-warranted, can be appreciated by the reader, and is also illuminating in comparison to other translations. In addition, Bashō's entire original Japanese text is present in the back of the book.
October 27, 2018
This book feels distant to me as many names and places are unknown to me. (The fault is on me tho')
Hahaha.
Hahaha.
August 5, 2016
This book is a major work in classic Japanese literature. Matsuo Basho is the great master of haiku poetry (Japanese poems in 17 syllabes). His work "Oku no hosomichi (Narrow Road to a Far Province)" is a diary of his trip to north of Tokyo garnished with haiku poems. The path that Basho followed on the narrow road to the deep north overlaps with the areas affected by the earthquake and tsunami. In particular Iwanuma, Ishinomaki and Matsushima, that are badly affected by the disaster, are evoked in Basho's diary.
I read two different translations of this book: Dorothy Britton's translation and Donald Keene's translation. I enjoyed reading Keene's translation more.
I read two different translations of this book: Dorothy Britton's translation and Donald Keene's translation. I enjoyed reading Keene's translation more.
September 14, 2011
Long a favorite of mine, "Narrow Road to a Far Province" is a great masterwork both of poetry and travel writing. Though the slim volume I own (the Kodansha International edition) is only 57 pages long, I find it best to digest it slowly, reading a page or two a day. Rushing through this kind of poetry tends to encourage more superficial readings, I think. But if I pick it up right before I fall asleep, I can roll a few short lines around in my head as I close my eyes:
In this hush profound
into the very rocks it seeps -
The cicada sound.
In this hush profound
into the very rocks it seeps -
The cicada sound.
April 26, 2016
A part of me wants to try to review this book as a haiku, but since Basho included prose in this travelogue of his journey, I think that might be both excessive and unnecessary.
This was beautiful. Seriously, beautiful. It was a little vignette of Japan in the 17th century. It was inspiring and wonderful and it makes me want to both travel and to begin journaling again.
This was beautiful. Seriously, beautiful. It was a little vignette of Japan in the 17th century. It was inspiring and wonderful and it makes me want to both travel and to begin journaling again.
April 13, 2008
Just finished reading. Actually last night. Lovely. My first thoughts i collected as a string of word-images below.
Sedate, subtle, seasonal, of place.
Tired, wisdom, earthly
Poignant, longing, natural
Basho's writing is something to be admired. Even his paragraphs are poetic.
Sedate, subtle, seasonal, of place.
Tired, wisdom, earthly
Poignant, longing, natural
Basho's writing is something to be admired. Even his paragraphs are poetic.
April 5, 2009
An excellent introduction to haiku. Not sure how well I like Britton's translations as compared to others, but as hers was an early effort her translations are important and interesting. A great afternoon read.
Cicadas singing
in the shade of the pine grove
Basho is better.
Cicadas singing
in the shade of the pine grove
Basho is better.
December 29, 2008
My favorite translation.
Currently Reading
October 21, 2010i like the introduction. offers a nice breakdown of the evolution of the haiku.
January 30, 2011
All the haiku written by Matsho Basho during his journey to the far, northern country of Japan.
December 6, 2012
Perhaps not the most accurate translations of this Basho classic, but definitely one I have revisited again and again! A thoroughly enjoyable travelogue/haiku collection.
April 6, 2017
Excellent book and this felt like a decent translation, but I prefer haiku to be translated without adding rhyme.
August 29, 2017
Considering that this is quite a small book, I managed to take a long time to read it. Basho's journal of a journey through 17th-century Japan seemed to be best enjoyed at my leisure. I'd highly recommend it for people who enjoy journals -- it's really quite short, so even if it doesn't completely hit the spot, the reader won't have wasted much time on it. But for those interested in journals and haiku, this is a real gem.
This edition has a decent introduction by the translator, Dorothy Guyver Britton, who gives some background information on Bashō and discusses her translation and how to read the haiku. I would be very interested in reading other translations. I was surprised that the entire Montgomery County (PA) library system seems to have only this one translation, since there are numerous available online.
Bashō was born in 1644 and took his famous journey in 1689, when he was 45 years old. The journey lasted from May 16 to October 18, and a National Geographic website (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/200...) claims that it was a 1,200 mile journey -- that means he averaged 8 miles a day for five months straight -- and he did stay some places more than one day. Quite a feat for a 45-year-old man in 1689, all on foot!
Throughout, he was visiting various shrines and natural wonders, seeing the beauty of the land and connecting with disciples along the way. It's hard to imagine such a journey on foot, but I'm glad there's a record of it. It's mostly prose, but with plentiful haiku as well, many of which he wrote on the fly for disciples, or to leave at places (such as shrines) he had visited.
The journal entries are peppered with haiku; I found Britton's translations a little odd, because she was trying to convey in English the rhythm of Japanese haiku, so mostly they rhyme (first line rhymes with last line). But there are really some wonderful passages and I got used to the style.
One representative haiku I enjoyed shows the sort of cleverness that I've read about in other books about haiku, with unusual images; here, it's the river drowning the sun:
From far Hot Spring Hills
All the way to Windy Beach--
How cool the evening view!
The river Mogami
Has drowned the hot, summer sun
And sunk it in the sea!
(68)
In the limited reading I've done, my understanding was that traditional haiku is about nature, and it sounded fairly strict. But here is an example of the poet expressing deep personal emotion, while still staying "in nature" in the poem:
"Isshō, a young poet of considerable renown with a great love for linked verse, had died the winter before, and his elder brother was holding a memorial service for him. Isshō was a disciple of mine and we had both looked forward to viewing the autumn moon together. At his grave, I wrote:
The autumn wind’s sigh
Is my heart’s sorrowing cry.
Oh, shake the mound! Reply!" (75)
Soon after that he is separated from his traveling companion, Sora, with whom he was very close (makes sense, since they had probably traveled somewhere near 1,000 miles together at that point, if I've got it straight), and he writes about it:
"Sora was taken ill. Since he had relatives in a place called Nagashima in Ise Province, we decided he should go on ahead.
A solitary rover,
If I fall then let me die
Amid bush clover.
Sora wrote this poem before he left.
With the sadness of one who goes and the grief of the one who is left behind, we were like a pair of wild ducks parted from each other and lost in the clouds. I wrote:
Tears of autumn dew
Will wash off my hat the words
"Travellers two.'" (78
At one point he addresses something about writing haiku that has crossed my mind. It seems that you can only put together so many 17-syllable poems before they start seeming really repetitious and it gets boring. Now that I've read a lot more haiku I see that there's a lot of room within 17 syllables for radically different kinds of expression, but apparently that only goes so far. Especially, I'd think, in a small country like Japan where everybody seems to write haiku. Here's his pertinent reflection:
"So many poems had been written there [at the famous Shiogoshi Pines], nothing new was left to say about the many lovely views. To write another word about Shiogoshi’s pines would have been like trying to add a sixth finger to the hand." 80
Maybe some day soon (or not) I'll get another translation and do a little comparison. But you could do worse than this small volume.
This edition has a decent introduction by the translator, Dorothy Guyver Britton, who gives some background information on Bashō and discusses her translation and how to read the haiku. I would be very interested in reading other translations. I was surprised that the entire Montgomery County (PA) library system seems to have only this one translation, since there are numerous available online.
Bashō was born in 1644 and took his famous journey in 1689, when he was 45 years old. The journey lasted from May 16 to October 18, and a National Geographic website (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/200...) claims that it was a 1,200 mile journey -- that means he averaged 8 miles a day for five months straight -- and he did stay some places more than one day. Quite a feat for a 45-year-old man in 1689, all on foot!
Throughout, he was visiting various shrines and natural wonders, seeing the beauty of the land and connecting with disciples along the way. It's hard to imagine such a journey on foot, but I'm glad there's a record of it. It's mostly prose, but with plentiful haiku as well, many of which he wrote on the fly for disciples, or to leave at places (such as shrines) he had visited.
The journal entries are peppered with haiku; I found Britton's translations a little odd, because she was trying to convey in English the rhythm of Japanese haiku, so mostly they rhyme (first line rhymes with last line). But there are really some wonderful passages and I got used to the style.
One representative haiku I enjoyed shows the sort of cleverness that I've read about in other books about haiku, with unusual images; here, it's the river drowning the sun:
From far Hot Spring Hills
All the way to Windy Beach--
How cool the evening view!
The river Mogami
Has drowned the hot, summer sun
And sunk it in the sea!
(68)
In the limited reading I've done, my understanding was that traditional haiku is about nature, and it sounded fairly strict. But here is an example of the poet expressing deep personal emotion, while still staying "in nature" in the poem:
"Isshō, a young poet of considerable renown with a great love for linked verse, had died the winter before, and his elder brother was holding a memorial service for him. Isshō was a disciple of mine and we had both looked forward to viewing the autumn moon together. At his grave, I wrote:
The autumn wind’s sigh
Is my heart’s sorrowing cry.
Oh, shake the mound! Reply!" (75)
Soon after that he is separated from his traveling companion, Sora, with whom he was very close (makes sense, since they had probably traveled somewhere near 1,000 miles together at that point, if I've got it straight), and he writes about it:
"Sora was taken ill. Since he had relatives in a place called Nagashima in Ise Province, we decided he should go on ahead.
A solitary rover,
If I fall then let me die
Amid bush clover.
Sora wrote this poem before he left.
With the sadness of one who goes and the grief of the one who is left behind, we were like a pair of wild ducks parted from each other and lost in the clouds. I wrote:
Tears of autumn dew
Will wash off my hat the words
"Travellers two.'" (78
At one point he addresses something about writing haiku that has crossed my mind. It seems that you can only put together so many 17-syllable poems before they start seeming really repetitious and it gets boring. Now that I've read a lot more haiku I see that there's a lot of room within 17 syllables for radically different kinds of expression, but apparently that only goes so far. Especially, I'd think, in a small country like Japan where everybody seems to write haiku. Here's his pertinent reflection:
"So many poems had been written there [at the famous Shiogoshi Pines], nothing new was left to say about the many lovely views. To write another word about Shiogoshi’s pines would have been like trying to add a sixth finger to the hand." 80
Maybe some day soon (or not) I'll get another translation and do a little comparison. But you could do worse than this small volume.
June 22, 2025
Difficult to appreciate for a non-Japanese reader.
For literature students, Nobuyuki Yuasa's introduction to this Penguin Classics edition of Narrow Road nicely recaps the development of Japanese poetry through the haiku form of which Basho was a master. Nobuyuki offers a measured assessment of Basho's work, indicating how it matured in emotional depth over the years of his travel writing.
Basho's actual accounts of his travels left me largely unmoved. They combine prose description of sites visited and events along the way with the haiku composed by Basho and his sometime travelling companion inspired by the surroundings. I would have appreciated more of Basho's reactions to the people he met and circumstances under which he travelled. There is some of this, but his accounts are laden with references to visits to historical sites which meant little to me, but often left the poet in tears as he considered the tragic events of the past.
A typical section of the prose, selected at random:
"A clear sky and a brilliant sun greeted my eyes on the following morning, and I sailed across the lagoon in an open boat. I first stopped at a tiny island named after the Priest Noin to have a look at his retreat where he had stayed for three years, and then landed on the opposite shore where there was an aged cherry tree which Saigyo honored by writing "sailing over the waves of blossoms". There were also a mausoleum of the Empress Jingu and the temple named Kanmanjuji."
This is pleasant enough to read, but offers few insights into Basho's life in 1600s Japan.
For literature students, Nobuyuki Yuasa's introduction to this Penguin Classics edition of Narrow Road nicely recaps the development of Japanese poetry through the haiku form of which Basho was a master. Nobuyuki offers a measured assessment of Basho's work, indicating how it matured in emotional depth over the years of his travel writing.
Basho's actual accounts of his travels left me largely unmoved. They combine prose description of sites visited and events along the way with the haiku composed by Basho and his sometime travelling companion inspired by the surroundings. I would have appreciated more of Basho's reactions to the people he met and circumstances under which he travelled. There is some of this, but his accounts are laden with references to visits to historical sites which meant little to me, but often left the poet in tears as he considered the tragic events of the past.
A typical section of the prose, selected at random:
"A clear sky and a brilliant sun greeted my eyes on the following morning, and I sailed across the lagoon in an open boat. I first stopped at a tiny island named after the Priest Noin to have a look at his retreat where he had stayed for three years, and then landed on the opposite shore where there was an aged cherry tree which Saigyo honored by writing "sailing over the waves of blossoms". There were also a mausoleum of the Empress Jingu and the temple named Kanmanjuji."
This is pleasant enough to read, but offers few insights into Basho's life in 1600s Japan.
July 16, 2026
A book of travel stories from 17th century Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō, who derived haiku poetry from a 13th century poetry game ‘renga’.
You follow Bashō as he gives up his worldly possessions, sells his house and begins a 5 month pilgrimage across Japans main island to inspire his poetry and follow the footsteps of old master poets.
Relaxing read, picturesque descriptions, master poetry and snippets into what life was like wandering from town to town in 17th century Japan.
A favourite of mine, a haiku written by Bashō companion ‘Sora’
‘With your nest on a rock,
Have you a truce with the ocean waves,
O trusting sea hawk?’
Beautiful juxtaposition of chaotic waves of the ocean contrasted next to the gentle nesting sea hawk paints such clear, vivid imagery. A poem that demands the reader to visualise more than what’s trapped in 3 small lines, that’s the beauty of a Haiku, It more than just a casual read and asks you to delve deeper.
Now to leave my own Haiku, a homage to Bashō famous ‘Old pond’ (1686)
16/07/26 - Modern ode to Bashō
‘Life’s uncertainty
A frog leaps in to the pond
Splash! and what comes next?’
You follow Bashō as he gives up his worldly possessions, sells his house and begins a 5 month pilgrimage across Japans main island to inspire his poetry and follow the footsteps of old master poets.
Relaxing read, picturesque descriptions, master poetry and snippets into what life was like wandering from town to town in 17th century Japan.
A favourite of mine, a haiku written by Bashō companion ‘Sora’
‘With your nest on a rock,
Have you a truce with the ocean waves,
O trusting sea hawk?’
Beautiful juxtaposition of chaotic waves of the ocean contrasted next to the gentle nesting sea hawk paints such clear, vivid imagery. A poem that demands the reader to visualise more than what’s trapped in 3 small lines, that’s the beauty of a Haiku, It more than just a casual read and asks you to delve deeper.
Now to leave my own Haiku, a homage to Bashō famous ‘Old pond’ (1686)
16/07/26 - Modern ode to Bashō
‘Life’s uncertainty
A frog leaps in to the pond
Splash! and what comes next?’
February 13, 2017
After visiting the historic temple and temple ruins at Hiraizumi on a trip to Japan in 2015, I was definitely interested in reading some of Basho's famous poetry. Having not read haiku, I was definitely interested in reading through this poetic travel memoir and revisiting my own voyage to Japan’s deep north.
The local library had only A Haiku Journey, which included some of Basho’s most famous haiku in addition to the The Narrow Road to the Deep North, translated by Dorothy Britten and accompanied by photographs taken during the 1970s by Dennis Stock. The photos were nice but a little dated, and I felt that Britten’s translations, which did not include the original Japanese, seemed a little affected, including alien rhyming schemes that would have no relation to the original Japanese. I will have to look for another English edition of Basho’s verse. In any case, it was interesting to see this traveler taking stock of his visit to this eight hundred year old location some three hundred years before I too visited. Read more about this and other books I read inspired by my trip to Japan at my blog, Reading Rainstorm.
The local library had only A Haiku Journey, which included some of Basho’s most famous haiku in addition to the The Narrow Road to the Deep North, translated by Dorothy Britten and accompanied by photographs taken during the 1970s by Dennis Stock. The photos were nice but a little dated, and I felt that Britten’s translations, which did not include the original Japanese, seemed a little affected, including alien rhyming schemes that would have no relation to the original Japanese. I will have to look for another English edition of Basho’s verse. In any case, it was interesting to see this traveler taking stock of his visit to this eight hundred year old location some three hundred years before I too visited. Read more about this and other books I read inspired by my trip to Japan at my blog, Reading Rainstorm.
April 6, 2026
Epitomizes "mono no aware," that is, "the pathos of things," the wistful awareness that everything is transient, which dominates Japanese aesthetics. This belief, many masters believe, can only be truly expressed through fleeting sensation: the cold of snow, the pink of blossoms, the wind-silenced chirp of crickets. Basho, safe to say, was one of these masters, observing the nature around him with a rousing humanism, penning ephemeral waka describing nests of birds hanging precipitately off marine rocks, the sensuousness of peeling ripe fruit, the loneliness of every goodbye and farewell and see you soon in this moonbound journey north. This put me in a bit of a mood, admittedly.
Read
August 7, 2026really really liked this very special book, got from uncle cos too. i’ve been on a real youtube travel food vlogs kick atm so this complimented that very well.
- brilliant writing of sparing minimal zen quality
- makes me want to walk the world & write poetry, a beautiful buddhist journey of extreme beauty & brilliant emotion
- brilliant translation it seems that she’s done the verse particularly well & imagining crafting translations with rhymes and similar meanings to get the translation across was arduos
- brilliant writing of sparing minimal zen quality
- makes me want to walk the world & write poetry, a beautiful buddhist journey of extreme beauty & brilliant emotion
- brilliant translation it seems that she’s done the verse particularly well & imagining crafting translations with rhymes and similar meanings to get the translation across was arduos
May 6, 2025
In 1689, Japan’s greatest haiku poet, Matsuo Basho, set off on a five-month, 2,000 kilometre journey from Edo (now Tokyo) into the northern interior and back down the opposite coast to Ogaki, in Gifu prefecture.
This, the last of Basho’s many long walks, resulted in a short haibun, a mixture of travel diary and poetry called Oku no Hosomichi, translated here as Narrow Road to a far Province. It is considered a classic in Japanese literature.
The introduction by Dorothy Guyver details Basho’s early life and gives the reader an introduction to Haiku
This, the last of Basho’s many long walks, resulted in a short haibun, a mixture of travel diary and poetry called Oku no Hosomichi, translated here as Narrow Road to a far Province. It is considered a classic in Japanese literature.
The introduction by Dorothy Guyver details Basho’s early life and gives the reader an introduction to Haiku
November 21, 2022
A world classic to be sure, but I think you have to be a scholar of historical Japan to get the full effect of this book. So many people and places are mentioned only by name with little additional information given. Contemporaries of Basho and scholars might thrill to the names but they meant little to me, and I doubt they will do much more for most contemporary readers. Still, the haiku are evocative and there is some interest in Basho's descriptions of the places and people he meets.
June 15, 2022
Many translations of the haiku into English are pretty naff, most of them rhyming, which just doesn't work, distracting from central images. They sound like cheesy couplets. Avoid. Get Sam Hamill's excellent version instead.
July 7, 2025
I just love this book. The translation seems well done, though I don’t read Japanese so I don’t know for sure, but reading made me feel as if I could go to Japan and travel Basho’s path and find all the same landmarks there today, just like he did. I love a good journey.
April 22, 2021
steps on the path
October 17, 2023
The author rates five stars!
May 18, 2024
A journey story in the form of journal entries and haiku poems. Quick read in English, but incomprehensible to me in japanese even with furigana and help.
October 10, 2024
Basho flows into another Basho
May 8, 2025
"And as for those who spend their days upon the waters in ships and those who grow old leading horses, their very home is the open road."
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews