Narrow Road to the Interior: And Other Writings
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A masterful translation of one of the most-loved classics of Japanese literature—part travelogue, part haiku collection, part account of spiritual awakening Bashō (1644–1694)—a great luminary of Asian literature who elevated the haiku to an art form of utter simplicity and intense spiritual beauty—is renowned in the West as the author of Narrow Road to the Interior, a travel diary of linked prose and haiku recounting his journey through the far northern provinces of Japan. This edition features a masterful translation of this celebrated work. It also includes an insightful introduction by translator Sam Hamill detailing Bashō’s life and the art of haiku, three other important works by Bashō—Travelogue of Weather-Beaten Bones, The Knapsack Notebook, and Sarashina Travelogue—and two hundred and fifty of his finest haiku, making this the most complete single-volume collection of Bashō’s writings.
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Art is, to me, the most authentic self-expression. Beauty is secondary. Art thrives on our individuality, on our differences. This also implies that art is a mode of living. And how Bashō lived art!
Being a writer myself, I envy Bashō and his time. Yes, it was war-torn medieval Japan. But, people in general are so cincere. Even prostitues used to utter Haikus. More than that people used to remember poems with their context and history which is, in this age only done by experts. They cherished art and artists. Without so much distractions of our era, a person can live on very little and a poet could have been a hermit.
Bashō lived art in that time. He practices Zen. He immersed himself in writings of his predecessors. He preached his way of poetry and lived by his rules with absolute honesty. He tought himself to be one with the nature and when he wrote about nature, he wrote about himself.
And, what did he achieved? To me, Bashō is synonymous with excellence.
