Yetgeul › Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North) › Complete in one volume
Yamanaka山中
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 Yamanaka hot spring — no need to pluck chrysanthemums
溫泉に浴す其功有明に次と云 山中や菊はたおらぬ湯の匂
I bathed in the hot spring. Its virtue is said to be second only to Arima.
Yamanaka — / no need to pluck chrysanthemums, this scent of the hot water
2A boy called Kumenosuke
あるじとするものは久米之助とていまだ小童也彼がいふ俳諧を好て洛の貞室若かりしむかし爰に來し頃風雅に辱しめられて洛に歸て貞德老人の門人と成て世にしらる功名の後此一村判詞の料をうけずといふ今更むかしがたりとは成ぬ
The one who keeps the house is called Kumenosuke, and he is still a small child. His father was fond of haikai. Long ago, when Teishitsu of the capital was young and came here, he was put to shame over matters of elegance, and on going back to the capital he became a disciple of the old man Teitoku and made himself known to the world. After he had made his name, he took no fee for his judgments in this one village, they say. By now it has become a tale of long ago.