basho: narrow road to the deep north

"the days and months are wanderers of a hundred generations, the years that come and go are also travellers. those who spend their lives floating on a boat, or people who get old leading a horse by the bit, spend day after day traveling and inhabit travel. there are also a great number of ancients who died while travelling. i, too, from a certain year have been enticed by the wind like a single cloud and could not stop the desire to wander..."

matsuo basho’s haiku has been featured several times on the golden fish blog so it seems only fitting that his masterpiece, the “narrow road to the deep north” should also appear on these pages. ”basho wrote this incredible travelogue in 1689 after travelling 2400 kilometres in 150 days. in narrow road to the deep north, basho fulfills the dream of many people, to address their passge through this life metaphorically by wandering seemingly aimlessly across a sometimes hostile landscape, all the while recording their observations, sensations, and thoughts.

but there’s more to it than the journey itself. originally titled oku no hosomichi, or “narrow road to the interior” basho suggests that “every day is a journey, and the journey itself home.” this is echoed in the introductory sentences of narrow road which opens with the following words: “many of the men of old died on their travels, and i, too, for years past have been stirred by the sigh of a solitary cloud drifting with the wind to ceaseless thoughts of roaming.
last year i spent wandering along the seacoast.
in autumn I returned to my cottage on the river and swept away the cobwebs.
gradually, the year drew to a close.
when spring came and there was mist in the air, i thought of crossing the barrier of shirakawa into oku.
everything about me was bewitched by the travel gods, and my thoughts were no longer mine to control. the spirits of the road beckoned, and i could do no work at all.”

the journey is as much inside the person as it is outside the home. the urge to know what is beyond the known, to gather experiences and to reflect on their import and merit, to stretch away from the present moment is also about the process of becoming. to read nine translations of this opening paragraph then venture over here.

a good overview of the writings of basho has been put together over at intense city.

a lovingly assembled translation can be read here read here. assembled in 44 sections, may i recommend that you bookmark the link, and read one section per day for fourty four days. this will allow you to more fully reflect on the experiences as described and then also on those of your own as you reflect on the reading.