Narrow Road to the Interior: And Other Writings (Shambhala Classics) (Paperback)

by Matsuo Basho (Author), Sam Hamill (Translator) "THE MOON AND SUN ARE eternal travelers..." (more)
Key Phrases: critical vocabulary, Narrow Road, Selected Haiku, Ise Shrine (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"One of the undisputed masterpieces of Japanese Literature. . . . Hamill achieves a kind of luminosity of language that I find unparalleled in other translations of this work."—Burton Watson, Columbia University "Lucid and engaging, this translation, a gift of careful attention, does not separate poetry from spiritual practice. Basho becomes our guide on the way of insight. Such is the magic of a fine translation."—Margaret Gibson, Tricycle

Product Description
Here is the most complete single-volume collection of the writings of one of the great luminaries of Asian literature. Basho (1644–1694)—who elevated the haiku to an art form of utter simplicity and intense spiritual beauty—is best known in the West as the author of Narrow Road to the Interior, a travel diary of linked prose and haiku that recounts his journey through the far northern provinces of Japan. This volume includes a masterful translation of this celebrated work along with three other less well-known but important works by Basho: Travelogue of Weather-Beaten Bones, The Knapsack Notebook, and Sarashina Travelogue. There is also a selection of over two hundred fifty of Basho's finest haiku. In addition, the translator has provided an introduction detailing Basho's life and work and an essay on the art of haiku.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Shambhala (September 26, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570627169
• ISBN-13: 978-1570627163
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #322,831 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars nice of Hamill to try, November 30, 2004

By	Phinaes "daigu" (either Japan or Missouri) - See all my reviews

There is only one other book where you can find these four of Basho's "travel diaries" in one volume and that is Nobuyuki Yuasa's. This compilation also includes a generous selection of Basho's hokku. These are the book's pluses. Unfortunately though, Hamill is much too intent on presenting you with Basho as a sort of haiku-zen master, an identity that Basho himself created as a voice through which to narrate. Mr Hamill would have us believe that Basho wrote poetry for the sake of zen, but the truth is that Basho studied zen for the sake of poetry. Also, Hamill's insistence upon translating in the 5-7-5 form ruins quite a few poems: you get sort of overexplanatory, prosaic verses much of the time. It is almost as if he were translating the explanations you will find in Japanese collections of Basho's verse. For example:

Hamill translates "fuyu no hi ya bajou ni kooru kageboushi" as

Crossing long fields,
frozen in its saddle,
my shadow creeps by

though it should probably (more accurately) be rendered:

winter sun...
on horse's back
a frozen shadow

Hamill dropped the phrase "fuyu no hi ya" entirely and replaced it with "Crossing long fields." I don't know why Hamill rids Basho of suggestion and nuance. Maybe he doesn't think the western reader can find poetry in hokku/haiku as they truly are.

The verse quoted by another reviewer

Your song caresses
the depths of loneliness,
high mountain bird.

might as well not be considered a translation at all. There is almost nothing of the original poem remaining except for the notion of loneliness and the kankodori, which is translated as "high mountain bird." "uki ware o sabishi-garase yo kankodori" would be translated literally as

make this sorrowful self feel lonely, cuckoo!

sabishi-garase is the imperative form of the verb that means "to cause to feel lonely." As a translator one of the worst things you can do is to try to improve upon a poem, though, personally, I don't think Hamill's versions actually do. If you don't trust the poet you're translating, then why are you doing it at all?

At the moment I am in the middle of translating Basho's "Oi no Kobumi" ("Backpack Notes") into English, and when I get stuck on an obscure phrase it helps to consult other translations to see how that translator interpreted it, but oftentimes Hamill (Yuasa is guilty of this too) just glosses over a phrase, which in the end robs the text of any of the interesting quirks in Basho's prose. I wonder if Hamill hit the same tough spots as I and just decided to gloss rather than really try to understand it.

I do not mean to be overly critical of Hamill. It is obvious that he is a good writer and some of his translations are successful but I wonder how much he really considered his renderings. In the end we are reading Hamill, not Basho.

Unfortunately, there are not many alternative translations of Basho's other haibun, but there are plenty of his "Oku no Hosomichi." Hiroaki Sato's is probably the best, since it is very faithful and it gives the most background info (including linked-verse sequences written during the journey), but Cid Corman's is nice too because he does a pretty good job at reproducing Basho's prose style. Also, if you're looking for a good collection of Basho's hokku, check out Makoto Ueda's work. For a good critical study of Basho look at Haruo Shirane's Traces of Dreams. A good internet analysis of Oku no Hosomichi: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~kohl/basho/

54 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clouds of Cherry Blossoms, July 31, 2002

By	"beancurdsbooks" (Rivendell) - See all my reviews

Narrow Road to the Interior and other writings
by Matsuo Basho
translated by Sam Hamill

This is the most complete collection of Basho's writings translated into English available in a single volume. Aficionados of Japanese culture keen on exploring the haiku literature would be hard-pressed to find a better book to start with.

Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) lived during the Genroku period in Japan. The Tokugawa shogunate had unified the country and it was a time of relative peace, which allowed those so inclined a freedom of travel not usual in many periods of Japanese history. Basho was so inclined. At the age of forty his restless feet led him on several walking tours of Japan, and he left behind collected impressions of these journeys in both prose and haiku.

Thoroughly versed in the Chinese and Japanese poetic traditions prevalent among the literati of his time, Basho was also an ardent disciple of Zen. He devoted his life to refining, clarifying, and simplifying his poetry. In the brief haiku form he found the perfect vehicle through which to realize his poetic ideals, and the poems he wrote have inspired and captivated readers and poets throughout the world with their elegance, insight, and simple brilliance.

This volume collects together four travelogues (Narrow Road to the Interior, Travelogue of Weather-Beaten Bones, The Knapsack Notebook, and Sarashina Travelogue) and over 250 of Basho's haiku. The translator has provided an introductory essay and an afterward revealing many aspects of Basho's life, work, and the haiku form itself. Also included are a chronology of Basho's life, a map detailing his journeys, and a bibliography.

Sam Hamill's translation is marvelously clear and uncluttered, and allows the glow of Basho's awareness to somehow peek through the words in his poems. The book itself is a Shambala edition, and so quite beautiful: printed on high-quality paper in a gorgeous typeface with lovely endpapers. This book is a gem.

Your song caresses
the depths of loneliness,
high mountain bird.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars *The Great Matsuo Basho Leads Us INWARD*, September 11, 2006

By	mcHaiku "nmi" (Brown County INDIANA) - See all my reviews

Matsuo Basho's "Narrow Road to the Interior" is translated by Sam Hamill, an accomplished poet who also translated the haiku of ISSA in "The Spring of my Life" (isbn # 1570621446) As B. Watson, professor at Columbia University has said, "Hamill achieves a kind of luminosity of language that I find unparalleled in other translations of the work."

Basho lived from 1644-1694 and achieved acclaim as the greatest writer of haiku and.this book of his last travels is a classic in Asian literature. His stature must have made the task of translating more difficult, even intimidating. The title is of course a metaphor for traversing life to find one's spiritual center or soul.

Amateur western writers who become enamored of writing haiku soon realize there are depths to which their studies may never take them. The sounds, the Zen way of thinking --bring much more to the equation than mere playfulness (as in senryu), or a built-in sense of syllables, and fondness for epigrams.

Basho set off on his long journey & early in his travels was loaned a horse because "it is easy to get lost." The horse carried the poet, then stopped, and returned home without the rider but carrying Basho's gift tied to the saddle. The route of Basho's travels is printed inside the covers -- he describes "pines shaped by salty winds, trained into sea-wind bonsai." In other centuries men walked hundreds of miles, giving & receiving haiku as gifts - many about history, and some memorials. His lodgings were often noted, probably because they were more often miserable than not. His writings often included geographical 'markers' -- these speak of much more than PLACE to Japanese readers. One who had been a companion on the road wrote:
"All night long
listening to the autumn winds
wandering in the mountain"
Basho himself wrote for another companion as he turned back:
"Written on my summer fan
torn in half
in autumn"
And so he gave his thanks to those who shared his journeys and the quest for answers each of us asks on our own "narrow road."