The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches (Penguin Classics)

A Review of Basho’s (trans. Yuasa) “Narrow Road to the Deep North and other travel sketches”TL;DR: Blast from the past! An honest recount of Basho’s journeys in Edo-period Japan with immersive translation by YuasaOccasionally, a reader stumbles upon a book so subtle and so intimate that she cannot help but feel like an intruder; a book that compels reading and re-reading, and as such a new truth is revealed to the reader at each iteration. I feel that this is one of such books.This small book contains five short stories, or rather short journal entries, of Basho’s travels: “Records of a Weather-exposed Skeleton,” “A Visit to the Kashima Shrine,” “Records of a Travel-Worn Satchel,” “Visit to Sarashina Village,” and the most famous one, “The Narrow Road to the Deep North.”The book begins with the first story “Weather-exposed Skeleton” about Basho’s journey upon receiving news of his mother’s death, and ends with “The Narrow Road” about Basho’s final journey where he would die. I bring this up to point out that Basho’s writing is sensitive to the human condition and its inherent vulnerability, meditating on even the smallest, seemingly insignificant elements of life.I highly recommend reading the introduction. It includes insights into Basho’s life, a note on the translation, and a short summary of the spirit of haiku. In this review, I will discuss a little bit more about why I think this matters and hopefully I can address some of many people’s concerns about Yuasa’s translations not being “faithful” to haiku. Long story short, I like Yuasa’s translations and I don’t think they betray the art of haiku, though I do admit that the form is untraditional.The book also includes maps and illustrations where appropriate.PROS: no shortage of wisdom from Basho and enjoyable translations by YuasaFirst, I want to say that Basho’s writing would more-than-occasionally make me look up from the book and ponder in deep thought. These stories are not dramatic or particularly adventurous, but that’s exactly the charm of this book. The stories are down-to-earth with a mindful tone. One of the analogies he used (in “Visit to Sarashina Village”) still sticks with me today. Travelling a cliffside road, Basho is terrified of riding atop an unsteady, overloaded horse and promptly dismounts. His tired servant, however, immediately hops on the horse instead and together the horse and rider sways to and fro. Looking down the vertigo-inducing precipice, Basho comments on the oblivious servant’s unawareness of his own peril, and that perhaps we are all like the servant on the horse, ignorant of the many traps that surround us.Now, I want to provide a statement in support and defence of Yuasa’s unconventional 4-line translation. Most people are familiar that English haiku are traditionally composed of three lines (and in traditional English haiku, the 5-7-5 syllabic structure does not apply). Yet, Yuasa employs an additional 4th line. I know that some people have doubts about this extra fourth line and would be put off by it, so I just want to say that on an emotional level, I really liked Yuasa’s translations.On a more critical level, I still think that Yuasa’s translations are effective and do not in any way betray the spirit of haiku. An open mind is crucial to welcoming creativity and Basho himself re-invented the haiku form from one that was traditionally flippant in nature to one that is serious and pensive. Since its inception, the haiku form has constantly been under revision and evolution. Masters of haiku have been testing the limits of this poetic form by experimenting with its structure, and Basho was no exception. Some modern Japanese haiku masters, such as Hekigoto and Hosai, have written well-known masterpieces that depart from the traditional 17-syllables and 3-line structure.Therefore, to me, Yuasa’s 4-line translations as nothing blasphemy-worthy. Instead, they represent a new creative addition to the haiku canon and allow us to think about haiku in more critical ways. In the introduction, Yuasa himself declared the 4-line structure to be a translation experiment, as he found English too limiting and not concise enough to translate Basho’s haiku into only 3-lines. Isn’t that admirable that Yuasa put content over form? I would much readily sacrifice form over information, as in any language translation there must be a “currency conversion” of form anyways.CONS: I wish Yuasa gave us a small explanation of why and how he chose his translationsThough I liked Yuasa’s translations, it would be extremely helpful if Yuasa discussed a bit more about his translation process. I would have liked if each poem had a footnote or appendix that goes into Yuasa’s thought process. I can imagine that the original Japanese is presented alongside Yuasa’s translations, and then Yuasa tells us a little bit about his deliberate language choices, which would help us better appreciate both Basho’s original poem and Yuasa’s translation.Final remarks:This book is an excellent introduction to Basho. Basho’s writing itself is charming and the translations are lovely. Overall a very good read. And a very good re-read too.

The late seventeenth century in Europe was the Baroque period, a time of empty bombast and meaningless rhetoric, at least in poetry. In contrast, Japanese poets were seeking to cast off all artifice and reduce their poetry to the bare essentials. The greatest of these was Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), widely regarded as the finest exponent of the haiku. "The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches," translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa, is a collection of several of Basho's travel diaries, including "The Records of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton," "A Visit to the Kashima Shrine," "The Records of a Travel-Worn Satchel," "A Visit to the Sarashina Shrine," and "The Narrow Road to the Deep North." Basho was no mere tourist. His insatiable wanderlust stemmed from a desire to lose himself, to become one with nature. A Zen Buddhist, Basho was on a quest for Enlightenment. Whether he was successful is beyond my competence to say. Although he often travelled alone, at other times he was accompanied by friends and disciples, and on the way he met many people who helped him--Buddhist priests, samurais, wealthy merchants. Basho's prose and verse display a deep love of nature, spiritual richness, and a sense of history. His work also conveys a strong sense of loneliness and melancholy and he doesn't shy away from the less romantic aspects of travel--getting lost, being thrown off a horse, staying in cheap, flea- and lice-infested inns. He also displays a self-deprecating sense of humor.Those of us who learned to write haikus in school may be puzzled by Yuasa's translations, which are in four lines instead of the standard three. Yuasa's introduction explains that he found it impossible to convey the richness of Basho's thought in only three lines. The translation is highly readable, with a helpful introduction (which takes up a third of the slender volume) and notes, which are essential for those of us with little background in Japanese history and culture. A book well worth reading and re-reading.

A book with five autobiographical travels, three of them being his expectant last journey of life, with required farwell party etc., of Basho with haiku injected by the author, his traveling companions, or persons met along the way. It was quite an interesting read on culture and the way of life in Japan during Basho's day. The book was satisfying and interesting as a travel journal and for a taste of Basho's personality and of the cultural mores of Japanese feudal society. A sense of the Japanese appreciation of nature and of symbols in nature was also conveyed. Haiku seems to embody something beyond words, natural symbols that we observe everyday captured; a sometimes great ineffable meaning in the mundane.Some of the poetry was good, as far as the translation communicated, however quite a lot also seemed lost in translation that might have been expounded upon. Yuasa Noboyuki, the translator, and writer of the forward, might have done better by talking about these difficulties and that might have brought some light to many of the haikus. The translating haiku with all of the original sense is almost impossible, so I have been told. I also have been told that Ezra Pound expounded, someplace, on just how impossible translating haiku into English is. Noboyuki might have done better to expound on his difficulties translating Japanese haiku into English and his futile attempts to convey the totality of the haiku, which could have raised the vibrancy of some of them; it was vague effort that he included in talking about this aspect.The poems were charming, as were the autobiographical travel stories of Basho. A good read.

One of the greatest poets , a genius for any road you wish to walk

very good one

A travel writing with haiku poems by one of the most brilliant poets from Japan. The sentences and haiku poems interact with each other to form a poetic world. In addition, he saw the facts of the journey as a material of literature. In order to aim for completion as a literary work, he developed an idea without sicking to whether it was fact or not.

Often a decent translation continues to be issues without so much as romaji equivalent let alone Kanji / kana let alone kanji with furigana.Without so much as romaji we are not allowed to HEAR passage that has been translated.The best alternative is to buy a weak transl and then add back in what is missing.Not as bad a women poets collection without kanji ... not to see the kanji chosen when kana not used (and vice-versa) is UTTERLY exasperrating.

This is quite a strange but fascinating travel book - based on Haiku and other more extended forms of Japanese poetry. I have to admit it sometimes felt a bit short of what I had been expecting - buy this was probably due to the translation - I think it loses something uniquely Japanese - not that I am a Japanese speaker! Having said that it has a beatiful zen-like charm and is distinctly different from Western travel books since it is written primarily from a poetic and spiritual viewpoint. The final Narrow Road to the Deep South brings everything together for a beatiful travelogue - unique in travel writing