Yetgeul › Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North) › Complete in one volume
Sōka草加
Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North) Complete in one volume "The months and days are the travelers of a hundred generations, and the years that come and go are travelers too" — the travel record of Bashō, who left Edo at forty-six and walked Ōshū and Hokuriku for five months. In the summer grass he sees the dreams of warriors, in the rock he hears the voice of the cicadas soaking in, and under one roof he likens the sleeping women of pleasure to bush clover and the moon. Wherever the prose comes to rest, a haiku is set down. Beside the pilgrim records of Faxian, Xuanzang, and Hyecho, this is one more road in this library.
1The Load on My Thin Shoulders
瘦骨の肩にかゝれる物先くるしむたゝ身すからにと出立侍るを紙子一重は夜のふせぎゆかた雨具墨筆のたぐひあるはさりがたき餞などしたるはさすがに打捨がたくて路次のはづらひとなれるこそわりなけれ
What hung upon my thin shoulders was the first thing to trouble me. I had meant to go out with nothing but my own body, and yet a single paper robe against the cold of night, a light summer robe, rain gear, ink and brush and the like, and besides these the parting gifts I could hardly refuse — after all I could not bring myself to throw them away, and so they became a burden on the road. There was no help for it.