Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North) 奥の細道 · Matsuo Bashō · 1702 (printed, Genroku 15) · the journey of 1689 · 1 passages · 137 Chinese characters · reading time 0.3 min
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.
On the way to Yamanaka I walked with Mount Shirane behind me. On the mountainside to the left there is a hall of Kannon. After Cloistered Emperor Kazan had finished his pilgrimage to the thirty-three places, he enshrined here an image of the Great Mercy and Great Compassion and named it Nata (那谷), they say. He divided the two characters of Nachi (那智) and Tanigumi (谷汲) and joined them, it is said.
Strange rocks stand in every shape, old pines are planted in rows, and a small hall thatched with miscanthus is built out over the rock. It is a place of rare merit.
Whiter than the stones / of Ishiyama — the autumn wind