The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches : Penguin Classics - Matsuo Basho

The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches

By: Matsuo Basho

Paperback | 1 March 1967 | Edition Number 1

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'It was with awe
That I beheld
Fresh leaves, green leaves,
Bright in the sun'
 
In his perfectly crafted haiku poems, Basho described the natural world with great simplicity and delicacy of feeling. When he composed The Narrow Road to the Deep North, he was an ardent student of Zen Buddhism, setting off on a series of travels designed to strip away the trappings of the material world and bring spiritual enlightenment. He wrote of the seasons changin, of the smells of the rain, the brightness of the moon, and beauty of the waterfall, through which he sense mysteries of the universe. There's seventeenth-century travel writing not only chronicle Basho's perilous journeys through Japan, but they also capture his vision of eternity in the transient world around him.
 
In his lucid translation Nobuyuki Yuasa captures the Lyrical qualities of Basho's poetry and prose by using the natural rhythms and language of the contemporary speech. IN his introduction, he examines the development of the haibun style in which poetry and prose stand side by side. this edition also includes maps and notes on the texts.
 
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

 
Industry Reviews
Written in a mixture of prose vignettes known as haibun and the 17-syllable poems of haiku, this slim volume contains five travel sketches from Bashi's wanderings through his native Japan in the 17th century. Few books so brilliantly marry a journey through a physical exterior with the interior landscape of the traveller. Mountains collared by clouds and cedar trees dripping rain become a subtle revelation of Bashi's own state of mind. The purity and simplicity of the writing is breathtaking. In four short haiku lines Bashi is able to conjure the spirit of place and of his own shifting moods in a way that would take other writers whole pages. (Kirkus UK)

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