Basho's Narrow Road: Spring and Autumn Passages

Matsuo Basho (1644-94) is considered Japan's greatest haiku poet. Narrow Road to the Interior
(Oku no Hosomichi) is his masterpiece. Ostensibly a chronological
account of the poet's five-month journey in 1689 into the deep country
north and west of the old capital, Edo, the work is in fact artful and
carefully sculpted, rich in literary and Zen allusion and filled with
great insights and vital rhythms. In Basho's Narrow Road: Spring and Autumn Passages,
poet and translator Hiroaki Sato presents the complete work in English
and examines the threads of history, geography, philosophy, and
literature that are woven into Basho's exposition. He details in
particular the extent to which Basho relied on the community of writers
with whom he traveled and joined in linked verse (renga) poetry
sessions, an example of which, A Farewell Gift to Sora, is
included in this volume. In explaining how and why Basho made the
literary choices he did, Sato shows how the poet was able to transform
his passing observations into words that resonate across time and
culture.