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The Essential Basho
Here is the most complete single-volume collection of writings by one of the great luminaries of Asian literature. Includes a masterful translation of Basho's most celebrated work, Narrow Road to the Interior, along with three less well-known works and over 250 of Basho's finest haiku. The translator has included an overview of Basho's life and an essay on the art of haiku.
184 pages, Hardcover
Published March 30, 1999
About the author
Matsuo Bashō
310 books596 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 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 13, 2022
Only 3 stars because it's not all Haiku and I didn't find the travel stuff as interesting as I would have liked. Plus it's a lot of translated haiku that I suspect is better in the original Japanese, although some of it was brilliant even in English. Also, I don't generally read volumes of poetry despite having written a plethora of free verse in my teens and early university years (most of it foolishly tossed. Sure, some was drivel, naturally, but when my parents sent me a box of stuff, some of it wasn't so I'm glad to have those few back.)
In any event, here are a couple I loved PLUS one that made me think of my niece and of course she loved hearing it.
Two of the ones I loved even in English:
Winter peonies--
we'll call these plovers in snow
our winter cuckoos
"Remembrance fern"
withers--I bought fresh rice cakes
at the old hotel
All the cherry blossom ones reminded me of my niece, but this is the one I told her over the phone:
If my voice was good,
I'd sing a song of cherry
blossoms falling
Because her teacher helped her write a song she started and the refrain is about cherry blossoms falling, etc (it has depth to it). She lives in Vancouver which is rife with Japanese cherry trees and there is even a Cherry Blossom Festival. Here's a photo of some Vancouver specimens, so you can see why the blossoms are one of the things Basho wrote of so often in the spring:
In any event, here are a couple I loved PLUS one that made me think of my niece and of course she loved hearing it.
Two of the ones I loved even in English:
Winter peonies--
we'll call these plovers in snow
our winter cuckoos
"Remembrance fern"
withers--I bought fresh rice cakes
at the old hotel
All the cherry blossom ones reminded me of my niece, but this is the one I told her over the phone:
If my voice was good,
I'd sing a song of cherry
blossoms falling
Because her teacher helped her write a song she started and the refrain is about cherry blossoms falling, etc (it has depth to it). She lives in Vancouver which is rife with Japanese cherry trees and there is even a Cherry Blossom Festival. Here's a photo of some Vancouver specimens, so you can see why the blossoms are one of the things Basho wrote of so often in the spring:
October 3, 2015
It's interesting to see how various translators do their work. Basho is popular among the English-speaking readers, I guess.
This is a new translation. It says it's the most complete single-volume collection (of Basho), but comparing the TOC side by side, I don't see how it is more complete than The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches. And I think this translator attempts to be different from others in a strange way. For instance, before the famous summer grass haiku, Hamill presents Tu Fu's poem (really a beginning part of a poem) as a poem, even though in the original, it is incorporated in the narrative.
For comparison of a few available English translation of Basho, please see my review here.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Translation is a hard work. My appreciation to the time-consuming, near-impossible work Hamill completed. Thank you also for enjoying haiku.
This is a new translation. It says it's the most complete single-volume collection (of Basho), but comparing the TOC side by side, I don't see how it is more complete than The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches. And I think this translator attempts to be different from others in a strange way. For instance, before the famous summer grass haiku, Hamill presents Tu Fu's poem (really a beginning part of a poem) as a poem, even though in the original, it is incorporated in the narrative.
For comparison of a few available English translation of Basho, please see my review here.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Translation is a hard work. My appreciation to the time-consuming, near-impossible work Hamill completed. Thank you also for enjoying haiku.
February 24, 2008
The moon so pure
a wandering monk carries it
across the sand.
Basho is brilliant. His work speaks for itself.
a wandering monk carries it
across the sand.
Basho is brilliant. His work speaks for itself.
August 10, 2011
Here, I typed up the best ones for you:
http://tymelgren.com/bestofbasho.html
http://tymelgren.com/bestofbasho.html
Read
March 8, 2014On my desk for some time now has been a yellow filing card with the following written on it with a marking pen:
"I do not seek to follow
in the footsteps of those of
old. I seek only what they
sought."
These are a translation of the words of the Japanese poet, Basho, who was born in 1644 in Ueno, Iga Province, 30 miles south of Kyoto, Japan. He was the son of Matsuo Yozaemon, a low-ranking samurai. Basho had a samurai name also: it was Matsuo Munefusa.
The Essential Basho was brought to my attention by a fellow reader who posted about it on Good Reads and I immediately borrowed a copy from the local library.
The Essential Basho was translated by Sam Hamill and begins with Basho's travelogue,Essential Basho Narrow Road to the Interior. A map of Basho's journeys and a Chronology are included as well as a very informative and helpful Translator's Introduction. Basho had "long dreamed of crossing the Shirakawa Barrier into northern Honshu, the country called Oku which was immediately north of the city of Sendai. He started his journey in May of 1689. It was interesting to read that he "carried extra nightwear in his pack along with his cotton robe or yukata, a raincoat, calligraphy supplies, and, of course, hanamuke, departure gifts from well-wishers, gifts he found impossible to leave behind."
Sam Hamill says the diary is much more than a travel journal. "It's form, haibun, combines short prose passages with haiku...Basho completely redefined haiku and transformed haibun. These accomplishments grew out of arduous studies in poetry, Buddhism, history, Taoism, Confucianism, Shintoism, and some very important Zen training."
Basho was a student of Saigyo, a Buddhist monk-poet who lived from 1118 - 1190 and was the most prominent poet in an imperial anthology titles Shinkokinshu. It was from Saigyo that Basho learned the importance of "being at one with nature".
Basho says Hamill "is not looking outside himself", rather "he is seeking that which is most clearly meaningful within, and locating the "meaning" within the context of juxtaposed images that are interpenetrating and interdependent."
"The poet strives for the quality called amari - no - kokoro, meaning that the heart/soul of the poem must reach far beyond the words themselves, leaving an indelible aftertaste."
Basho is among the most literate poets of his time and his ork contains literary Chinese and Buddhist allusions and literary echoes called honkadori (borrowed or quoted lines and paraphrases). Hamill's footnotes explain many of the latter. Basho also felt a deep connection to history. Many of his journeys included ancient temples where he paid homage to historical and literary and Buddhist personages.
Here are a few samples of Basho's haiku:
The bush warbler
in a grove of bamboo sprouts
sings of growing old.
The old cherry tree's
final blossoms are her last
cherished memory,
With a warbler for
a soul, it sleeps peacefully,
this mountain willow.
And from the travel diaries:
"Autumn winds filled my heart with a longing to see the full moon rising over Mount Obasute, a ragged peak where, in ancient times, Sarashina villagers abandoned their aging mothers to die among the stones."
"To my left, a sheer cliff fell thousands of feet into a rushing river, leaving my stomach churning with every step of my horse."
On a lighter note, I was impressed by the fact that this man and his helpers wore simple sandals to walk in and relied on people he met on the way to replace them when they were worn out.
He wrote: "With no real home of my own, I wasn't interested in accumulating treasures. And since I travelled empty-handed, I didn't worry much about robbers."
To read this book is to travel to another dimension almost and you might find your pace slowing as you walk along with Basho. My thanks to Cynthia for the recommendation.
"I do not seek to follow
in the footsteps of those of
old. I seek only what they
sought."
These are a translation of the words of the Japanese poet, Basho, who was born in 1644 in Ueno, Iga Province, 30 miles south of Kyoto, Japan. He was the son of Matsuo Yozaemon, a low-ranking samurai. Basho had a samurai name also: it was Matsuo Munefusa.
The Essential Basho was brought to my attention by a fellow reader who posted about it on Good Reads and I immediately borrowed a copy from the local library.
The Essential Basho was translated by Sam Hamill and begins with Basho's travelogue,Essential Basho Narrow Road to the Interior. A map of Basho's journeys and a Chronology are included as well as a very informative and helpful Translator's Introduction. Basho had "long dreamed of crossing the Shirakawa Barrier into northern Honshu, the country called Oku which was immediately north of the city of Sendai. He started his journey in May of 1689. It was interesting to read that he "carried extra nightwear in his pack along with his cotton robe or yukata, a raincoat, calligraphy supplies, and, of course, hanamuke, departure gifts from well-wishers, gifts he found impossible to leave behind."
Sam Hamill says the diary is much more than a travel journal. "It's form, haibun, combines short prose passages with haiku...Basho completely redefined haiku and transformed haibun. These accomplishments grew out of arduous studies in poetry, Buddhism, history, Taoism, Confucianism, Shintoism, and some very important Zen training."
Basho was a student of Saigyo, a Buddhist monk-poet who lived from 1118 - 1190 and was the most prominent poet in an imperial anthology titles Shinkokinshu. It was from Saigyo that Basho learned the importance of "being at one with nature".
Basho says Hamill "is not looking outside himself", rather "he is seeking that which is most clearly meaningful within, and locating the "meaning" within the context of juxtaposed images that are interpenetrating and interdependent."
"The poet strives for the quality called amari - no - kokoro, meaning that the heart/soul of the poem must reach far beyond the words themselves, leaving an indelible aftertaste."
Basho is among the most literate poets of his time and his ork contains literary Chinese and Buddhist allusions and literary echoes called honkadori (borrowed or quoted lines and paraphrases). Hamill's footnotes explain many of the latter. Basho also felt a deep connection to history. Many of his journeys included ancient temples where he paid homage to historical and literary and Buddhist personages.
Here are a few samples of Basho's haiku:
The bush warbler
in a grove of bamboo sprouts
sings of growing old.
The old cherry tree's
final blossoms are her last
cherished memory,
With a warbler for
a soul, it sleeps peacefully,
this mountain willow.
And from the travel diaries:
"Autumn winds filled my heart with a longing to see the full moon rising over Mount Obasute, a ragged peak where, in ancient times, Sarashina villagers abandoned their aging mothers to die among the stones."
"To my left, a sheer cliff fell thousands of feet into a rushing river, leaving my stomach churning with every step of my horse."
On a lighter note, I was impressed by the fact that this man and his helpers wore simple sandals to walk in and relied on people he met on the way to replace them when they were worn out.
He wrote: "With no real home of my own, I wasn't interested in accumulating treasures. And since I travelled empty-handed, I didn't worry much about robbers."
To read this book is to travel to another dimension almost and you might find your pace slowing as you walk along with Basho. My thanks to Cynthia for the recommendation.
April 4, 2013
Where to begin... I wanted to read this because I wanted to get some kind of tips on writing Haiku. I think it helped (and I'll write some points out for my own record keeping purposes), but what solidified in my mind, is that haiku don't really... really... work well apart from the environment which gave rise to them. What does that mean? A great haiku can stand on its own, but it will, I think have more meaning if you are in the place it was written, or, have a picture accompanying it. I also think it may be a good idea to not read more than 1 or 2 at a time, because then, even if you aren't rushing through the poems, you are rushing through them, because haiku aren't meant to be forgotten immediately, like newscast fodder. With that in mind, there were a few that I really enjoyed, and most just hovered over the surface of my consciousness (mostly while reading in a transit bus).
Other than that, I was interested in the history of Chinese/Japanese poetry (and serious devotion) long before the English were Normans. Also, the translator has serious credentials. What the heck dude.
Here's some of the Japanese/Chinese thoughts on poetry (and haiku) , from the "Translator's Introduction":
kokoro: (outlined in the 8th century) : includes sincerity, conviction, or "heart"; also "craft" in a particular way. Admired for their "masculinity": that is, "for uncluttered, direct, and often severe expression of emotion. Their sincerity (makoto) was a quality to be revered.
amari-no-kokoro : (borrowed from 5th Century Chinese scholar, Liu Hsieh's original yu wei) : "aftertaste".
"The poet strives for the quality called amari-no-kokoro, meaning that the heart/soul of the poem must reach far beyond the words themselves, leaving an indelible aftertaste".
mono-no-aware : "insight" - [seeing things are as they are] - "permits [the poet] to perceive a natural poignancy in the beauty of temporal things".
[Ivan Morris] says of aware:
[Steve: I do not, in fact, subscribe to these Buddhist doctrines, nor the fatalism involved].
- "...in later centuries, awareidentified a particular quality of elegant sadness, a poignant awareness of temporality"
yūgen : (10th Century) : "aesthetic feeling not explicitly expressed", "ghostly qualities" (ink paintings), "depth of meaning"
makura kotoba : "pillow word" - "a fixed epithet, often like Homer's "wine-dark sea," but frequently allowing for double entendre or multiple evocation... often permitted a poet to disguise emotions; it was both "polite" and metaphoric.
kake kotoba : "pivot word" - " a play on different meanings of a word that links two phrases... [nearly impossible to translate] ... creates deliberate ambiguity, often implying polysignation".
kajitsu : ka is the "beautiful surface of the poem", jitsu is the "substantial core".
kokai : "expressed a feeling of regret after reading a poem, a consequence of the poet having failed to think sufficiently deeply prior to its composition".
- "Bashō sought a natural spontaneity, a poetry that would indulge no regrets of any kind"
- "Bashō spent many years struggling to 'learn how to listen as things speak for themselves'. No regrets. He refused to be anthropocentric."
- "[Bashō] would later write to a disciple, 'Even if you have three or four extra syllables, or even five or seven, you needn't worry as long as it sounds right. But if even one syllable is stale in your mouth, give it all your attention."
- "Bashō tells his students, 'Do not simply follow in the footsteps of the ancients; seek what they sought.'"
And some of my favourites:
From what tree's
blossoming, I do not know,
but oh, it's sweet scent!
(e.g. of what the Latin-text Japanese looks like:
Nan no ki no
hana towa shirazu
nioi kana)
All day long, singing,
yet the day's not long enough
for the skylark's song
Father and mother,
long gone, suddenly return
in the pheasant's cry
For those who proclaim
they've grown weary of children,
there are no flowers
Nothing in the cry
of cicadas suggests they
are about to die
The young farm-child
interrupts rice husking to
gaze up at the moon
The oak's nobility--
indifferent to flowers--
or so it appears
It seems to me the
underworld would be like this--
late autumn evening
Awaiting snowfall,
in the drinkers' faces,
lightning flashes
Your song caresses
the depths of loneliness,
high mountain bird
A white chrysanthemum--
and to meet the viewer's eye,
not a mote of dust
____________________________
With that haiku, Bashō wrote no more. And thus I, too, must end this review/notes/overview
Other than that, I was interested in the history of Chinese/Japanese poetry (and serious devotion) long before the English were Normans. Also, the translator has serious credentials. What the heck dude.
Here's some of the Japanese/Chinese thoughts on poetry (and haiku) , from the "Translator's Introduction":
kokoro: (outlined in the 8th century) : includes sincerity, conviction, or "heart"; also "craft" in a particular way. Admired for their "masculinity": that is, "for uncluttered, direct, and often severe expression of emotion. Their sincerity (makoto) was a quality to be revered.
amari-no-kokoro : (borrowed from 5th Century Chinese scholar, Liu Hsieh's original yu wei) : "aftertaste".
"The poet strives for the quality called amari-no-kokoro, meaning that the heart/soul of the poem must reach far beyond the words themselves, leaving an indelible aftertaste".
mono-no-aware : "insight" - [seeing things are as they are] - "permits [the poet] to perceive a natural poignancy in the beauty of temporal things".
[Ivan Morris] says of aware:
In its widest sense it was an interjection or adjective referring to the emotional quality inherent in objects, people, nature, and art, and by extension to a person's internal response to emotional aspects of the external world... [By c. 1000 CE] aware still retained its early catholic range, its most characteristic use...to suggest the pathos inherent in the beauty of the outer world, a beauty that is inexorably fated to disappear together with the observer. Buddhist doctrines about evanescence of all living things naturally influened this partiular content of the word, but the stress in aware was always on direct emotional experience rather than on religious understanding. Aware never entirely lost its simple interjectional sense of "Ah!"
[Steve: I do not, in fact, subscribe to these Buddhist doctrines, nor the fatalism involved].
- "...in later centuries, awareidentified a particular quality of elegant sadness, a poignant awareness of temporality"
yūgen : (10th Century) : "aesthetic feeling not explicitly expressed", "ghostly qualities" (ink paintings), "depth of meaning"
makura kotoba : "pillow word" - "a fixed epithet, often like Homer's "wine-dark sea," but frequently allowing for double entendre or multiple evocation... often permitted a poet to disguise emotions; it was both "polite" and metaphoric.
kake kotoba : "pivot word" - " a play on different meanings of a word that links two phrases... [nearly impossible to translate] ... creates deliberate ambiguity, often implying polysignation".
kajitsu : ka is the "beautiful surface of the poem", jitsu is the "substantial core".
kokai : "expressed a feeling of regret after reading a poem, a consequence of the poet having failed to think sufficiently deeply prior to its composition".
- "Bashō sought a natural spontaneity, a poetry that would indulge no regrets of any kind"
- "Bashō spent many years struggling to 'learn how to listen as things speak for themselves'. No regrets. He refused to be anthropocentric."
- "[Bashō] would later write to a disciple, 'Even if you have three or four extra syllables, or even five or seven, you needn't worry as long as it sounds right. But if even one syllable is stale in your mouth, give it all your attention."
- "Bashō tells his students, 'Do not simply follow in the footsteps of the ancients; seek what they sought.'"
And some of my favourites:
From what tree's
blossoming, I do not know,
but oh, it's sweet scent!
(e.g. of what the Latin-text Japanese looks like:
Nan no ki no
hana towa shirazu
nioi kana)
All day long, singing,
yet the day's not long enough
for the skylark's song
Father and mother,
long gone, suddenly return
in the pheasant's cry
For those who proclaim
they've grown weary of children,
there are no flowers
Nothing in the cry
of cicadas suggests they
are about to die
The young farm-child
interrupts rice husking to
gaze up at the moon
The oak's nobility--
indifferent to flowers--
or so it appears
It seems to me the
underworld would be like this--
late autumn evening
Awaiting snowfall,
in the drinkers' faces,
lightning flashes
Your song caresses
the depths of loneliness,
high mountain bird
A white chrysanthemum--
and to meet the viewer's eye,
not a mote of dust
____________________________
With that haiku, Bashō wrote no more. And thus I, too, must end this review/notes/overview
June 27, 2010
I remember learning the basics of writing Haiku in fifth or sixth grade. I don't however remember any of the poems I wrote for school. Since then Haiku has been out of sight, out of mind for me. That was until my son and I read Dragon of the Red Dawn (Magic Tree House #37) by Mary Pope Osborne. The story centers on Jack and Annie meeting Matsuo Basho.
Whenever Sean comes across an interesting factual detail in a book he's reading he likes to research what he's learned. Usually he and I will do a web search to find an article but sometimes he wants more.
In the case of Basho, he wanted a book of his poetry. Luckily our library has a copy of The Essential Basho by Sam Hamill. It includes a brief biography of the poet and his most famous haikus. Sean was mostly interested in reading more of his work. So we took turns reading haikus to each other.
I love it when one book will lead to another as Dragon of the Red Dawn lead us to The Essential Basho.
Whenever Sean comes across an interesting factual detail in a book he's reading he likes to research what he's learned. Usually he and I will do a web search to find an article but sometimes he wants more.
In the case of Basho, he wanted a book of his poetry. Luckily our library has a copy of The Essential Basho by Sam Hamill. It includes a brief biography of the poet and his most famous haikus. Sean was mostly interested in reading more of his work. So we took turns reading haikus to each other.
I love it when one book will lead to another as Dragon of the Red Dawn lead us to The Essential Basho.
January 7, 2014
Wonderful. Translater Sam Hamill has provided excellent history on haiku and Basho. The travelogues included are thoughtful writing and so descriptive, often delightful. It's nice to have Basho's poems placed within these prose pieces, as he wrote them; providing the settings in which they were written allows for easier and more meaningful understanding of them, although this book does also contain a number of pages of stand-alone haiku. And I just loved reading Basho. Such wonderful and lovely writing, just a breath of fresh air!
An excellent book for me as I introduced myself to the Japanese haiku poets!
An excellent book for me as I introduced myself to the Japanese haiku poets!
September 10, 2016
Basho was an amazing haikuist and his work left me with peace and a greater appreciation for the now. I found his "Narrow Road to the Interior" travelogue a little too esoteric, as I am unfamiliar with the many places he mentions but rarely describes in his travels, and I believe I missed many cultural references. His other travelogues were more accessible and his poetry by itself was wonderful. Highly recommended.
December 29, 2014
This was my first foray into Japanese Haiku; it was not what I expected, but was enjoyable enough. My only frustrations with the book are technical: why end-notes instead of foot-notes? what were the criteria to determine what got a note and what did not?
Perhaps I am being too hard on the work, it seems designed for one with more an academic interest, where my interest, while more than just a passing-interest, is certainly not academic.
Perhaps I am being too hard on the work, it seems designed for one with more an academic interest, where my interest, while more than just a passing-interest, is certainly not academic.
August 3, 2013
I love the travel diaries, the haiku, and principles he taught his students about how to write good haiku.
Three favorite haikus:
Wrapping dumplings in
bamboo leaves, with one finger,
she tidies her hair
In a stiff spring breeze,
pipe clasped firmly in his mouth -
Mister Ferryman!
A snowy morning --
sitting alone with dried salmon,
enjoying chewing
Three favorite haikus:
Wrapping dumplings in
bamboo leaves, with one finger,
she tidies her hair
In a stiff spring breeze,
pipe clasped firmly in his mouth -
Mister Ferryman!
A snowy morning --
sitting alone with dried salmon,
enjoying chewing
March 10, 2010
Essential reading. Haiku by a master, and accounts of his peregrinations. When you have discovered Basho, you will see references to him everywhere.
February 18, 2023
I liked the journey log that explains where these haikus can from. Also seeing the Japanese under the English.
April 17, 2022
Sam Hamill's selection of Basho's work seems well-edited and thorough. Though some moments feel more flat, less evocative than other translations, only someone well-versed in the original Japanese could fully assess Sam Hamill's work.
April 24, 2021
A true understanding and revelation into Bashō, his haikus, and their origins and meaning—The Essential Bashō indeed!
November 12, 2022
Enjoyed both the poetic translations and the fascinating travelogue accounts.
April 6, 2025
A wonderful collection of travelogue poetry. The accompanying essays include illuminating explanations of common metaphors that wouldn’t necessarily be detected by western readers.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews