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The Echigo Road越後路
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 Echigo Road — the rough sea, and the River of Heaven lying across to Sado
酒田の名殘日をかさねて北陸道の雲にのそむ遙々のおもひ胸をいたましめて加賀の府まで百卅里ときく鼠の關をこゆれば越後の地に步行を改めて越中の國一ふりの關にいたる此間九日暑濕の勞に神をなやまし病發りて事を記さず 文月や六日も常の夜には似ず あら海や佐渡に橫たふ天河
I lingered day after day, loath to leave Sakata, and looked toward the clouds over the Hokuriku road. The thought of the long road ahead pained my heart, and I heard that it was a hundred and thirty ri to the seat of Kaga.
Past the Nezu Barrier is the land of Echigo. I changed my step and came to the Ichiburi Barrier in the province of Etchū. In these nine days the heat and the damp wore out my spirit, my illness came back, and I did not write down what happened.
The seventh month — / even the sixth night is not like other nights
The rough sea — / and lying across to Sado, the River of Heaven