Basho: The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Writings

[King Bob]

I had been meaning to read this for a long time, but I found it kind of hit or miss. Some of the poems were very good, but some didn't really hit for me. Some of the travel writing was interesting, some not. (Kind of like Marco Polo.) Some of the things he talks about I think would only make sense if you were familiar with the area and maybe some history. This translation (Penguin books) is now almost sixty years old, so I wonder if there are newer and better translations. (Also I found the introduction to this volume to be tedious and not that informative.) And I once saw a book where the author traveled along the same route. I didn't buy it, and I've never seen it again and have never been able to find it on Amazon. I think that book would enhance the main book.

But it was all worth it for this poem, which comes about one paragraph into the book:

Determined to fall
A weather-exposed skeleton
I cannot help the sore wind
Blowing through my heart

Good one, Basho. Nailed it.

[Drunk Monk]

I’ve forgotten exactly which Basho books I’ve read. This doesn’t sound like one of them. I had a collection book but I’m not sure where that went. I had another collection that was him and two other poets from the same era but I don’t know what became of that either. It’s been at least ten years since I’ve read him, maybe twenty.