Yetgeul › Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North) › Complete in one volume
Shinobu Villageしのぶの里
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 Mojizuri Stone of Shinobu Village
明れはしのぶもぢ摺の石をたづねて忍の里に行く遙山陰の小里に石なかば土に埋れてあり里のわらべの來て敎へけるむかしは此山の上に侍りしを往來の人の麥艸をあらして此石を試み侍るをにくみて此谷につき落せば石の面下さまにふしたりさもあるべき事にや 早苗とる手もとや昔忍ぶずり
When day broke I went to the village of Shinobu in search of the stone of Shinobu mojizuri. In a small hamlet far off in the shadow of the mountains the stone lay half buried in the earth. A child of the village came and told me that long ago it stood on top of this mountain, but travelers going up and down would trample the barley to try the stone, and the villagers hated it and pushed it down into this valley, so that the face of the stone lies turned to the ground. Perhaps it was so.
The rice-planting / hands at their work — the Shinobuzuri of long ago
Interlinear notes 1
一本ふしたりといふトアリ
Another text has 「ふしたりといふ」.