The Narrow Road to the Deep North and other Travel Sketches by Matsuo Basho
What:
The Narrow Road to the Deep North and other Travel Sketches by Matsuo Basho
Where:
here and good bookshops
When:
Since, like, the ‘60s
How much:
around $12 AUD
Spring is the perfect time to put away Moby Dick and go back to the classic works of Japanese haiku-master Matsuo Basho. Spring needs no florid Shakespearean drivel, no extended Biblical metaphors, no tricky rhetorical devices. It is a time best spent outdoors beneath the cherry, not curled away trying to make sense of Ahab's puzzled mutterings.
And the humble haiku is the perfect form to capture spring in its ineffable beauty. After all, reference to seasonal plants, animals and observances are de rigueur in the haiku tradition. So in Australia we might mention the Southern Cross, the Melbourne Cup and the mozzie, but in Japan it is the cherry blossom, the lengthening days and the pheasant.
Have you read the poem about the plum blooming in the thicket, or the poet under the cherry with blossom soup, blossom salad or the spring night, cherry-blossom dawn or the terrible cry of the pheasant - snake-eater? Hast thou seen the mountain path with sun rising through plum scent, or the shepherd's purse blooming in the hedge or the sparrows blossom-viewing in rape-field or the peaches of Fushimi or the waves of Lake Grebe? Nay, not grizzly Ahab - but bald-headed Basho, he hath seen it all.
Format: Book
Motivation: Good with a whiskey in the bath
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