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A review by ionm
The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches by Matsuo Bashō
adventurous
challenging
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
The laconic haiku is wrapped by prose in the travelogues of Matsuo Bashō. Nobuyuki Yuasa grouped the author's travel stories chronologically and presented them into this elegant English translation, "The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches".
Written in the second half of the 17th century, these texts are a poetic reminder of the ephemerality of human kind into the vast landscape of the natural world. Bashō did not claim to teach us directly about certain truths here, but rather in detailing his journeys across Japan, he wanted us to contemplate with him the beauty of this world, and the apparent meaningless concerns that trouble our day to day lives.
In effect, the act of travelling allows Bashō to experience life in its purest form, one that has no grand design in its purpose except that of satisfying one's curiosity of this world. Visits to famous mountains, beaches, temples, shrines, mausoleums, and other more ordinary settings, are an excuse for experiencing novelty and translating it into poetry.
The poems are central to the brilliance of this book. Their apparent simplicity shines with the power of universality. The haiku and other linked verses talk about nature and people. The emotions stirred by the poems about human life are ones of melancholy and desperation. The poems depicting the natural world are a celebration of timelessness and perfection. This concern for beauty may be originating in religion, but ultimately their aim is to consecrate purity in literature.
In the introduction and notes, Yuasa gives us an informative analysis of Japanese poetry, its medieval history and of Bashō's life. Without it, for the uninformed reader, this book may appear trivial, yet beautiful. What we ultimately learn is of the author's special place in Japanese literature as a poet that perfected the precision of the haiku and liberated it from human motivation. The poetry is allowed to breathe by itself, and as readers we are left with sublimity speaking to us in all its glory.
"The Narrow Road to the Deep North" and the other four travelogues are a meditation that will simply guide us forward, losing sense of our earthly existence with each step on the way.
Written in the second half of the 17th century, these texts are a poetic reminder of the ephemerality of human kind into the vast landscape of the natural world. Bashō did not claim to teach us directly about certain truths here, but rather in detailing his journeys across Japan, he wanted us to contemplate with him the beauty of this world, and the apparent meaningless concerns that trouble our day to day lives.
In effect, the act of travelling allows Bashō to experience life in its purest form, one that has no grand design in its purpose except that of satisfying one's curiosity of this world. Visits to famous mountains, beaches, temples, shrines, mausoleums, and other more ordinary settings, are an excuse for experiencing novelty and translating it into poetry.
The poems are central to the brilliance of this book. Their apparent simplicity shines with the power of universality. The haiku and other linked verses talk about nature and people. The emotions stirred by the poems about human life are ones of melancholy and desperation. The poems depicting the natural world are a celebration of timelessness and perfection. This concern for beauty may be originating in religion, but ultimately their aim is to consecrate purity in literature.
In the introduction and notes, Yuasa gives us an informative analysis of Japanese poetry, its medieval history and of Bashō's life. Without it, for the uninformed reader, this book may appear trivial, yet beautiful. What we ultimately learn is of the author's special place in Japanese literature as a poet that perfected the precision of the haiku and liberated it from human motivation. The poetry is allowed to breathe by itself, and as readers we are left with sublimity speaking to us in all its glory.
"The Narrow Road to the Deep North" and the other four travelogues are a meditation that will simply guide us forward, losing sense of our earthly existence with each step on the way.