Reviews

Senda hacia tierras hondas, by Matsuo Bashō

aodhanmurphy27's review against another edition

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reflective relaxing slow-paced

3.25

I fucking love Haikus

bjlinard's review against another edition

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challenging inspiring relaxing medium-paced

4.5

dycojams's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted reflective relaxing slow-paced

4.0

starlake's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced
basho is the goat 

ceciiiilllleeeee's review against another edition

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slow-paced

4.5

I loved this. Basho’s fascination and care for the world around him is beautiful to read. I also found the introduction extremely useful, particularly its description of the haiku tradition and Basho’s biography. Am keen to read more! 

books_and_keys's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective relaxing medium-paced

4.0

coffeesoakedpages's review against another edition

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adventurous informative relaxing medium-paced

5.0

lleullawgyffes's review against another edition

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reflective

4.75

_mallc_'s review against another edition

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4.0

niiice

nicole_torok's review against another edition

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3.0

3.5 - Another one I read for school...

The first thing that stood out to me was an alliteration, where Bashō describes his "dilapidated dwelling". I also appreciated the use of personification ("river swollen with rain", "the high ones [mountains] point their fingers to heaven; those lying down crawl over the waves", "wrapped in quiet". I thought the last one to be a very powerful and clever line; to be wrapped by something so loud as silence.

This story is very imagery heavy, leaning into the lyrical writing and detailed visuals.
Some of my favorite lines include:

"I became possessed by a spirit, which crazed my soul"

"birds crying and tears in the eyes of the fish"

"falling into a blue pool of a thousand rocks"

I did, however, run into a few problems with the writing. The style of the poems were kind of confusing and I wasn't sure what they were supposed to mean. There were also so many different places and landmarks that all had specific meanings, but it was difficult to keep track of them, and therefore, lost significance for me.

Overall, pretty interesting for something I had to read for class. The imagery is definitely what makes it stand out from others that I have read.