One update and a Tobacco Road redo

Richard Krawiec sent this:

Reminder, there is a November 7 deadline for submissions to Notes from the Gean. Richard Krawiec is encouraging haibun writers to submit. Already have some work going in by established haibun writers, as well as two well-known free verse poets, including a Pulitzer Prize winner. http://www.notesfromthegean.com/submissions.html

Check out my websites!

http://www.press53.com/BioRichardKrawiec.html

http://www.rkeditor.com/

http://jacarpress.com/index.html

---

I posted the video below two years ago. I've since received a number of new readers and thought that they might enjoy a Basho reenactment. This short film is done really well. An Interview With Babak Gray, the Director of Bashō and the Travelogue of Weather-Beaten Bones can be located here.



Here is Gary Warner's response to the video.

Here is Bruce Ross's response to the video.

And finally, here are a few more responses to the video.

Haiku Guy & Haiku Chronicles

David Lanoue was interviewed by NHK Radio last month. Lanoue, who was in Japan promoting the Japanese translation of his novel, Haiku Guy, speaks about haiku and his haiku novels. The four part interview is linked below:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

---

Haiku Chronicles is a new and interesting web site featuring Alan Pizzarelli and Donna Beaver.

Currently, there are two podcast available.

Episode 1: The Lost Tapes

Episode 2: Basho's Frog

Great work Alan and Donna! I look forward to Episode 3!

Haiku of Master Basho: Jane Reichhold

Jane Reichhold recently spoke about Basho and haiku at the Commonwealth Club. Here is a video of the event.

Kuniharu Shimizu - haiga & Basho

This just in from Kuniharu Shimizu:

I am starting a project in which I make haiga for all the haiku that appear in Basho's 'Narrow Road to Oku'. Dr. Donald Keene has given me his permission to use his translation for my haiga. The haiga will appear one by one on my blog so if you and your friends are interested, please visit my blog.(http://seehaikuhere.blogspot.com/) The first one is already uploaded. Thank you.

Basho, Coorte, Bly, and Burns

Norbert Blei, proprietor of Basho's Road, posted an intriguing excerpt from Art is: The Audacity of Still Life, an article by Benjamin Moser published in the February 2009 issue of Harpers Magazine. There is an interesting comparison in the works of still-life artist Adriaen Coorte and poet Matsuo Basho.

Parts of the Old North State experienced the season's first significant snowfall last Tuesday, blanketing areas with an almost "still-life" yet moving quality best described in a poem that appeared in today's offering of The Writer's Almanac:

Snowfall In The Afternoon

by Robert Bly

I
The grass is half-covered with snow.
It was the sort of snowfall that starts in late afternoon,
And now the little houses of the grass are growing
dark.

II
If I could reach down, near the earth,
I could take handfuls of darkness!
A darkness that was always there, which we never
noticed.

III
As the snow grows heavier, the cornstalks fade farther
away,
And the barn moves nearer to the house.
The barn moves all alone in the growing storm.

IV
The barn is full of corn, and moving toward us now,
Like a hulk blown toward us in a storm at sea;
All the sailors on deck have been blind for many
years.

"Snowfall In The Afternoon" by Robert Bly, from Eating the Honey of Words: New and Selected Poems. © Harper Flamingo, 1999.

I'll close with an interesting article published in the Christian Science Monitor entitled Scotland turns to 18th-century poet for economic stimulus.

Gary Warner responds to the Basho video

With Gary Warner's permission, I'm publishing an email he sent in regard to the Basho video.

I'm not sure if you are aware of two plays by Edward Bond that focus on this scene from Basho.

The first (1968) was "Narrow Road to the Deep North". Its described as a "satirical play on the British Empire", based on Oku no Hosomichi.

The second (1977) was called "The Bundle" and is basically a new version of the first. (Patrick Stewart actually played this role for the Royal Shakespeare Company, in December of 1977, which may have been its premiere)

Both would be well worth the read to people interested in the moral dilemma presented in the Basho video.

In the first, after Basho chooses not to adopt the baby by the river bank, the baby grows up into the tyrant Shogo. In the second, it is Basho who becomes the overlord, and the baby becomes "Wang", a revolutionary leader seeking to overthrow Basho.

Narrow Road opens with a Noh-style quickie context spoken by Basho:

--------------------

"My name is Basho. I am, as you know, the great seventeenth-century Japanese poet, who brought the haiku verse form to perfection and gave it greater range and depth. For example:

Silent old pool
Frog jumps
Kdang!

I've just left my home in the village here (points offstage) and I'm going on a journey along the narrow road to the deep north and when I reach there I shall become a hermit and get enlightenment."

-------------------
(There's some very nice interpretation and commentary on the play in "Dramatic strategies in the plays of Edward Bond" by Jenny S. Spencer. Spencer notes, however, that despite this being an accurate translation, it always invoked laughter from the audience. Spencer goes on to say "The Japanese priests of Narrow Road are portrayed as essentially comic, benign, and totally useless".

While Basho and the abandoned infant, risen to power as Shogo, battle things out in a traditional military way, Kiro, Basho's original traveling companion, turns out to be the sympathetic character of the play. Kiro is the one who takes up Basho's original search for enlightenment, and who is moved to despair by the events of the poem, giving the audience a moral compass with which to interpret the events of the play.

There's quite a bit of useful and insightful interpretation by Spencer in her book, on both plays. Her section on The Bundle comes later in the book (pp.125-135) under the heading "Political Parables", much of which can be found in Google Books here:

"Dramatic Strategies in the Plays of Edward Bond"
http://books.google.com/books?id=eckvFCb8yU4C&printsec=frontcover


Here's a bit about "The Bundle" from "Modern British Drama" by C.D. Innes

---------------
"Edward Bond (1934-): rationalism, realism, and radical solutions

"Social themes and realistic modes"

"...The social role of art being his primary concern, Bond focuses on the figure of a poet as early as "Narrow Road to the Deep North" in 1968. Basho is an idealist who, in using the abstract ideals of art as an excuse for non-involvement, becomes responsible for atrocities. When the abandoned baby he leaves to die on his quest for 'Enlightenment' survives to revenge himself on society by seizing power, Basho brings in colonial overlords, ending up as the figurehead of an evil regime. He represents false culture; and as the only outright 'villain' in Bond's early plays, he reflects the strength of Bond's conviction that art must be politically committed. There is even the suggestion that if there were no injustice or oppression, then there would be no reason for art at all: 'In an ideal society...[Basho] would have picked that baby up, gone off the stage and there would have been no necessity for a play.'

"The Bundle" (1978) makes the point even clearer. Instead of an itinerant seeker of 'Enlightenment', Basho has become rich: the active agent of oppression, rather than merely its apologist. This time the abandoned baby turns into a revolutionary leader, radicalized by Basho's lack of principle; and the victory of the common people destroys Basho. He is merely a polemic figure.

...

So in "The Bundle", the writer's role has been taken over by the revolutionary activist, who spreads political consciousness through actions, not words. The ending, where the revolutionary throws a baby into the river as a conscious political act that the dramatic context supports, graphically reverses the standpoint of his earlier plays.

6 - Bond, interview in "Gambit", 5, no. 17 (1970), p.9

-------------------

In the latter he grows up to be the revolutionary Wang. In the latter play, Wang, now an adult, himself finds an abandoned baby by the river. He scoops up the bundle and throws it into the river.

Bruce Ross on the Basho video

With his permission, I'm publishing an email I received from Bruce Ross in regards to the Basho video. If you would like to respond to Bruce's email, click the COMMENTS link at the end of the post. You will need a Blogger account to post a comment.


Concerning the Basho's abandoning the child, years back I checked the translation in response to others' outrage. But there it was.

At last night's Bangor Haiku Group meeting I brought up the video and everyone was outraged. Pressing for an understanding of Basho's act, Bob said Basho's haiku reflected a "cold, objective" attitude, one I had discerned in this incident, and therefore (and I would agree) Bob could see such an attitude in this act.

In our modern Western culture the homeless have a social net, if they want it, a majority of them probably mentally ill. This New Year's Eve in Boston I saw the same beggar standing in the same general area as the year before. I passed him without giving him any money. On the way back from a dramatic presentation, I saw him again:

New Year's Eve
the beggar again
in the chocolatier

Whether he was using the facilities on this bitter cold night or buying a sweet or both I didn't know.

Basho, it seems, would offer compassion where he could (he refused accompanying the courtesans in "Oku no hosomichi" because he was going in a different direction; he left rice for the child).

Perhaps an understanding of his act could be found in popular samauri films. In one episode in the series on the blind samurai Zatoichi, the main character is given a baby by a dying mother. Buddhist practicing Zatoichi not only immediately starts looking for the baby's father but sprinkles milk on his own breast for the baby to eat. The ex-Shogun Executioner in an episode of "Wolf with a Cub" is holding the rope that dangles his son in a well while preparing to do battle with some enemies who put the son in the well. He lectures the son, in a way not unlike Basho's prayer over the baby's fate, on a Buddhist understanding of fate and death. Zatoichi places the baby with relatives. The son does not drown in the well. But Basho's baby is presumably real.

Basho's abandoned baby will probably die from the elements as Basho implied in his prayer. Is this cruelty in the most extreme? An abandoned child in the contemporary West would be rescued by a human service agency. Was Basho too old to care for the baby? Was it too difficult for him to search for a relative or help? Or (forgive the thought) was Basho honoring the chain of fate set off by the baby's parents? A hard nut to crack.

I've been a fan of Zatoichi films for about a year now. I believe the scene that Bruce is referring to is below. Slide the progress bar over to the 2:30 mark to see Zatoichi's attempt at nursing an abandoned child.

In response to the Basho video

I've received a number of email in response to the Bashô reenactment video I posted a couple of days ago. Not surprisingly, many of you were disturbed to see the manner in which the great poet handled the situation of finding an infant alone by a river.

By special permission of poet, Edward Zuk, and Modern Haiku, I'm reprinting this haibun which also addresses this event in Matsuo Bashô's life:

Edward Zuk

Orphans and Beggars

One of the most controversial passages in Matsuo Bashô’s writings occurs in his Journey of 1684, when the poet encounters a toddler who had been abandoned and left to starve:

Near the Fuji River, we found an abandoned child about three years old sobbing in a piteous voice. “Assailed by the autumn wind, the blossoms on the bush clover plant will surely scatter tonight or wither in the morning,” I thought. “The child’s parents, unable to withstand the waves of the floating world, must have brought him to this swift river to await the end of his dewlike life.” I left him some food from my sleeve.

You who hear the monkey’s cries:
what of an abandoned child
in the autumn wind?

How could this have happened? Were you the object of your father’s hatred? Of your mother’s neglect? I can’t believe that your father hated you or your mother neglected you. No, this is Heaven’s doing; you must simply lament the fact that you were born unlucky. [Translation by Helen McCullough]

When I first read Journey of 1684 at university, I was so upset by it that Bashô tumbled from my pantheon of revered poets, and his work seemed tainted by what I believed to be his moral failings. How could he have left the infant to die? How could he not have done more? His musings about fate and acceptance seemed like poetic blather in this situation, and I found it easy to work up a sense of outrage that the haiku poet had been an observer and not an advocate.

Of course, I had passed by dozens — perhaps even hundreds — of street youth in Vancouver with less thought than Bashô had given this child. At most I had tossed them some change, muttered some consoling words to them or to myself, and then written a haiku, exactly as Bashô had done. Now I can understand Bashô’s actions in this passage. Few people of any age rise to the level of the Good Samaritan. I am no longer enough of a hypocrite to denigrate a poet for being an observer rather than a hero, even if I see our inaction as a human failing that neither of us has overcome.

She has fallen asleep
while begging for change —
the autumn moon

____________

Reprinted from Modern Haiku 39:3 (autumn 2008), 84–85, with the permission of the author and the publisher.

Basho video reenactment

Okay, sometimes something will pop into your inbox that can't wait until mid-week. :-) My pal and reading partner Kate MacQueen discovered the video below. This reenactment seems timely in light of my recent Basho book review. You may want to click the full screen button just to the right of the volume/speaker indicator.


Folks, I was mesmerized. I'd love to see a full-feature movie!

Curtis

Basho: The Complete Haiku - Book Review

Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher: Kodansha International
Translations, notes, and more: Jane Reichhold


My haiku journey has been one of cultivating a growing awareness of my surroundings. Through study, trial, and error, I have learned to preserve moments in my life and, occasionally, share them through haiku. I likely would have ignored such opportunities for composing poems had I not studied the works of other poets. I have had the pleasure of meeting and talking with a number of people who have inspired me through their friendship, advice, and poems. Such encounters have always fueled my haiku engine.

Unfortunately, we cannot converse with the original masters of haiku, but we can be inspired by their poems, journals, and the books written about them. Basho: The Complete Haiku, a new book published by Kodansha International with an introduction, biographical notes, and translations by author and poet, Jane Reichhold, explores the life and 1,012 known poems of the father of haiku, Matsuo Basho (1644-1694).

My first and long-lasting impression of this book is that Reichhold has worked diligently to retain the essence of each poem in her translations, occasionally offering multiple interpretations in each chapter along with the literal translations, Romanized versions, and original Japanese for every poem in the Notes section.

Here are a couple of examples:

26.

here and there
a mask by itself combs
willow hair

or

a spring wind
combs on a mask
willow hair

And the Romanized version of the same poem from the Notes section:

achi kochi ya / men men sabaki / yanagi gami
here there <> / mask combing by itself / willow hair

And one of my favorite poems from this volume referencing the poet Saigyo with an introductory sentence by Basho written in the autumn of 1684:

A stream flows through the bottom of Saigyo Valley, where I wrote a poem about women washing yams.

200.

women washing yams
if Saigyo was here
he'd compose a poem

or

women washing yams
if Saigyo was here
they'd compose a poem

And the Romanized version of the same poem from the Notes section:

imo arau onna / Saigyo nara ba / uta yoman
yam washing woman / Saigyo if be / poem write (conjecture)

The commentary included with the Romanized and Japanese versions of all 1,012 poems is invaluable, giving the reader a better understanding of what inspired Master Basho to write each poem, his poetic sensibilities, and his keen haiku eye.

The chronological order of this book is especially appealing, from introduction to chapter-by-chapter biographical synopsis, followed by poems written by Basho during that phase of his life gives the reader a sense that they are accompanying this revered poet on his haiku journey. The selected chronological notes and glossary of Japanese literary terms in the back of the book are perfect for quick referencing.

Reichhold could have finished Basho: The Complete Haiku with the translations and biographical notes and had a successful book, but she goes the extra mile, reaching out to the serious student of haiku by including an Appendix with 33 techniques in composing haiku including such important topics as sabi, wabi, yugen, and karumi. Each technique is explained and expertly demonstrated with one of Basho's poems.

Shiro Tsujimura's illustrations, interspersed throughout the book, complement this volume nicely. The dusk jacket photo by Shuhei Fujita of a representation of Basho's hut is quite appealing to the eye, perhaps giving the peruser the feeling that he or she is holding a piece of history. It is the opinion of this humble haijin that this book by Kodansha International and Reichhold is of tremendous literary and historical significance and should be included in every haiku poet's library. Basho: The Complete Haiku is an indispensable resource for any serious student of the father of haiku.