Yetgeul › Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North) › Complete in one volume
Mount Asakaあさか山
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.
1Mount Asaka — Searching for the Hanakatsumi
等窮か宅を出て五里ばかりの檜皮の宿をはなれて淺香山有り路より近し此あたり沼多しかつみ刈るころもやゝ近うなればいづれの草をはなかつみとはいふぞと人々にたつね侍れども更にしる人なし沼をたづね人にとひかつみ〳〵と尋ねありきて日は山のはにかゝりぬ二本松より右にきれて黑塚の窟一見し福島にやどる
I left Tōkyū's house, and past the post town of Hiwada some five ri on there is Mount Asaka. It is close to the road. There are many marshes about here. The season for cutting the katsumi reed was drawing near, so I asked the people, "Which plant is the one called hanakatsumi?" But there was no one at all who knew. I searched the marshes, asked the people, and went about calling "katsumi, katsumi" until the sun hung on the ridge of the mountains. At Nihonmatsu I turned off to the right, saw the cave of Kurozuka, and lodged at Fukushima.
Interlinear notes 1
一本西山にトアリ
Another text has 「西山に」.