Thursday, March 5, 2009

moments along the narrow road to the interior



i've been reading "narrow road to the interior and other writings" by matsuo basho. basho has shown up before on the golden fish so i won't get too deep into his biography.

rather, i'd like to share some little moments in the book that stand out for me.

"smoke of burning leaves and pine cones drew me on, touching something deep inside. then the moon rose, shining on the sea, day turned suddenly to night. we stayed at an inn on the shore, our second-story windows opening on the bay. drifting with wind and clouds, it was almost like a dream."

all night long
listening to autumn winds
wandering in the mountains
kawai sora

all the long night
salt-winds drive
storm-tossed waves
and moonlight drips
through shiogoshi pines.
basho

wave after wave
mixes tiny seashells with
bush clover flowers
basho

with clear melting dew
i'd try to wash away the dust
of this floating world
basho

across a dark sea,
the distant cries of wild ducks
and faintly, traces of white
basho

the bee emerging
from deep within the peony
departs reluctantly
basho

visit the golden fish sister blog over at flow.

2 comments:

Delwyn said...

Good morning Steven, I found you at Reya's and have been watching some of the delightful animations. My favourite so far has to be #1 .

Thank you for showing these animations

steven said...

hi delwyn and welcome!! there's quite a bit of animation scattered over this blog but i didn't start tagging it until very recently. the quality and range of animation available absolutely amazes me and so i am glad that you found something good for you!! look around some more - as time passes i'm going to retro-tag my postings. see you! steven