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- Oku no Hosomichi - 奥の細道 - おくのほそ道
The Narrow Road to the Deep North -
. Oku no Hosomichi - 奥の細道 - Introduction .
leaving Sakata on the 25th day of the 6th lunar month 6月25日
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- - - Station 33 - Echigo 越後路 - - -
After lingering in Sakata for several days, I left on a long walk of a hundred and thirty miles to the capital of the province of Kaga. As I looked up at the clouds gathering around the mountains of the Hokuriku road, the thought of the great distance awaiting me almost overwhelmed my heart. Driving myself all the time, however, I entered the province of Echigo through the barrier-gate of Nezu, and arrived at the barrier-gate of Ichiburi in the province of Ecchu. During the nine days I needed for this trip, I could not write very much, what with the heat and moisture, and my old complaint that pestered me immeasurably.
The night looks different
Already on July the sixth,
For tomorrow, once a year
The weaver meets her lover.
The great Milky Way
Spans in a single arch
The billow-crested sea,
Falling on Sado beyond.
Tr. by Nobuyuki Yuasa
days
According to Sora they arrived in Sakata on 6.13. On the 15th, 16th, and 17th they went to Kisagata, returning to Sakata on the 18th. From then until they departed on the 25th they had poetry gatherings with Terajima Takejo 寺島彦助 （Hikosuke) and Ito Genju (Fukyoku).
Nezu
The barrier gate at Nezu is also spelled with the characters for 'Nenju' meaning 'rosary.' This barrier is located on the border between Dewa and Echigo. It is one of the three major barrier gates of the north.
source : terebess.hu/english
酒田の余波日を重て、北陸道の雲に望、遥々のおもひ胸をいたましめて加賀の府まで百卅里と聞。鼠の関をこゆれば、越後の地に歩行を改て、越中の国一ぶりの関に到る。此間九日、暑湿の労に神をなやまし、病おこりて事をしるさず。
文月や六日も常の夜には似ず - fumizuki ya muika mo tsune no yo ni wa nizu
荒海や佐渡によこたふ天河 - araumi ya Sado ni yokotau amanogawa
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In his separate diary Basho wrote :
7月8日 - 8th day of the 7th lunar month
"The rain had stopped. I wanted to leave but Saritsu 左栗 invited me eagerly so I stayed for lunch. Around 3 in the afternoon, we reached Echigo Takada. I wanted to visit Ikeda Saemon 池田六左衛門, but he was not available, so we rested at a temple. Since we had an invitation from Hosokwaa Shun-An, we went there and had a haiku meeting.
薬欄にいづれの花を草枕
. yakuran ni izure no hana o kusamakura .
Written on the 8th day of the 7th lunar month.
for Hosokawa Shunan 細川春庵, Shun-An, haiku name Toosetsu 棟雪 Tosetsu
a doctor in Echigo Takada 越後高田.
Shun-An is also known as Hosokawa Shooan 細川昌庵 Shoan, Sho-An.
Basho seems to have stayed with Shun-An for three nights.
7月11日: Leaving Takada 高田を出立.
7月12日: Leaving Noomachi 能生町出発 Nomachi.
- Reference : itoyo/basho
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quote
araumi ya Sado ni yokotau amanogawa
This must be the masterpiece of three-dimensional haiku with bipolar structure. That is, Sado connects the wild sea (Earth) and the Milky Way (outer space) to demonstrate an extensive perspective, or three-dimensional field.
The Milky Way (according to an ancient legend associated with Star Festival) excites pity for the Altair-Vega couple. They can meet only once a year at the time of the Star Festival called Tanabata in East Asia. Sado recalls the sadness of noble people who were exiled there, such as the famous Noh-dancer Zeami or Saint Nichiren (Buddhist). The violent sound of wind-whipped sea arouses great fear in readers.
The images of the Milky Way, Sado and wild sea work in synergy to induce readers to feel hopeless sorrow. Those who are familiar with European history may recall Saint Helena, and the exiled Napoléon Bonaparte, to strengthen their interpretation. The haiku can be interpreted adequately without knowledge of the Star Festival of Tanabata.
Araumi ya: ... wild sea
Sado ni yokotau: ... stretching to Sado Isle
Amanogawa: ... the River in the Sky (Milky Way (literally)
Susumu Takiguchi
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quote
Bashō left a prose piece about Sado island,
twenty or so miles off the Japan Sea Coast in Niigata:
From the place called Izumozaki 出雲崎 in Echigo, Sado Island is eighteen li away on the sea. With cragginess of its valleys and peaks clearly visible, it lies on the side in the sea, thirty-odd li from east to west. Light mists of early fall not rising yet, and the waves not high, I feel as if I could touch it with my hand. ... from past to present, a place of exile for felons and traitors, [Sado Island] has become a distressing name.
As the evening moon sets, the surface of the sea becomes quite dark. The shapes of the mountains are still visible through the clouds, and the sound of waves is saddening.
source : Utamakura: Storied Places - Dennis Kawaharada
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The translation of Amanogawa, ama no kawa, (river of heaven) might lead to the notion that Basho used a self-made metaphor to discribe this heavenly phenomenon, but he did in fact not, he just used the common and normal Japanese word for "Milky Way".
With the introduction of the milky way in a haiku about this day of this festival, Basho also might have built a bridge to the next festival of the souls, O-Bon.
Kigo can thus work like the pearls of a rosary to bind together the associations of a Japanese reader.
Calendar Systems, Asian Lunar Calendar
荒海や佐渡によこたふ天の川
araumi ya Sado ni yokotau amanogawa
O'er wild ocean spray,
All the way to Sado Isle
Spreads the Milky Way
Tr. Dorothy Britton
How rough the sea!
And, stretching off to Sado Isle,
The Galaxy . . .
Tr. Henderson
rough sea/ over Sado Island/ milky way
http://www.worldhaikureview.org/3-1/vintage_tsubaki.shtml
a wild sea -
stretching to Sado Isle
the Milky Way
Tr. Haruo Shirane
By drawing on Sado's historical associations, Basho was able to infuse the landscape (kei) with a particular emotion or sentiment (joo), to view the landscape through the eyes of the past, as he did at utamakura. Sado, an island across the water from Izumosaki (Izumo Point) was known for its long history of political exiles: Emperor Juntoku, Nichiren, Mongaku, Zeami and others.
source : books.google.co.jp
Turbulent the sea—
across to Sado stretches
the Milky Way
http://carlsensei.com/classical/index.php/author/view/1
More translations :
- Reference - amanogawa -
araumi ya Sado ni yokotau amanogawa
This haiku has the cut marker YA at the end of line 1.
With the reverse structure of Japanese language, lines 2 and 3 can be translated as
the Milky Way
stretches to Sado
The scene seems to be pure shasei, Basho just telling us what he has seen from the beach. And yet . .
quote
"Basho was standing on the western shores of Japan looking out upon the night sea . . . Miles away, lay Sado Island . . . a place where numerous people endured the enforced solitude of exile. Stretching out across the sky was the Milky Way (Heaven's River).
"As a metaphorical river, it flows in internal tranquility above the storms of the sea and of human life, sparkling with a scattered brightness, more pure than gold.
Basho, the island, and everything on earth seem to be alone yet together under the stream of stars. Over the storm is silence; above the movement is a stillness that somehow suggests the flow of the river and of time; and piercing the darkness is the shimmering but faint light of stars."
Basho's Haiku: Selected Poems of Matsuo Basho,
source : David Landis Barnhill
. WKD : Tanabata 七夕 the Star Festival .
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- - - - - From the diary of Sora, written by Basho
小鯛挿す柳涼しや海士が家
. http://matsuobasho-wkd.blogspot.jp/2012/06/ama-divers.html .
ama no tsuma 海士が妻 a fisherman’s wife
熊坂がゆかりやいつの玉祭
. Kumasaka ga yukari ya itsu no tama matsuri .
remembering the famous robber 熊坂長範 Kumasaka Chohan
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