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Bashō Matsuo
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Back Roads to Far Towns: Basho's Oku-No-Hosomichi (ECCO TRAVELS) Paperback – January 1, 1996

by Basho Matsuo (Author), Hayakawa Ikutada (Illustrator), Kamaike Susumu (Translator),
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 10 ratings
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Early one spring morning in 1689 Basho, arguably the greatest of all Japanese poets, accompanied by his friend and disciple Sora, set forth on foot from his hermitage in Edo (old Tokyo) on one final journey. This pilgrimage took him through the backlands and highlands north of the capital, then across the island of Honshu and down the west coast toward Lake Biwa, a journey of nearly 1,500 miles. Basho would not return to Edo until 1691, three years before his death. Back Roads to Far Towns, the last of Basho's travel diaries, is the evocative account of this arduous journey, the crowning achievement of a lifetime of writing.
This edition is introduced by Robert Hass, Poet Laureate of the United States.
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  1. Part of series
    Ecco Travels
  2. Print length
    173 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Ecco Pr
  5. Publication date
    January 1, 1996
  6. Dimensions
    7 x 0.5 x 10 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0880014679
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0880014670
  9. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ecco Pr; Reprint edition (January 1, 1996)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 173 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0880014679
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0880014670
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 0.5 x 10 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 10 ratings

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Bashō Matsuo

Bashō Matsuo

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Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
10 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Maine landscaper
5.0 out of 5 stars Quality dealer
Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2020
Verified Purchase
Looking forward to reading this, a highly-rated translation. The used book is in excellent shape. Thank you.
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Dennis E. Donham
5.0 out of 5 stars Can't get enough versions of Basho!
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2014
Verified Purchase
This is a lovely book, the poetry flows, and one feels taken back to Basho's times and places on his journeys.
2 people found this helpful
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William J. Higginson
5.0 out of 5 stars Only version that delivers the goods.
Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 1999
There are perhaps half a dozen English versions of this, Basho's most famous "travel journal"--the Oku no hosomichi--currently available. If you have not read this version, you may justifiably wonder how this could be considered one of the two pillars of Japanese literature (with The Tale of Genji).
Translating the haiku in this work is devilishly difficult. I don't believe that Corman has delivered the goods 100% of the time, but his are still the best versions available, overall.
In the meantime, Corman is the only one who has managed to create in English prose something that remotely resembles the prose of the Japanese text. Basho did NOT write ordinary Japanese prose, so any translation into English that sounds like something you might hear on commercial radio or TV, or reads like a current novel by you-name-it, is woefully inadequate.
Corman's version has been slighted by others, claiming that it "sounds like Corman's own poems" (it does not) or it's written "as if Jack Kerouac went on the journey". (This last is amazing, as I cannot think of a style more distant from Kerouac in contemporary American English.)
Rather, Corman has tried to let the unique toughness and terseness of Basho's language cross the translation barrier.
This translation is closer to Basho than any other I've seen, and I've read probably just about every English translation of it ever published in an edition of 500 or more--and the original.
Kudos to Robert Hass for seeing it back into print!
62 people found this helpful
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Theseus
5.0 out of 5 stars About the Grossman Edition
Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2010
Released in 1968 by Grossman ("a Mushinsha Limited Book"), translated by Corman and Kamaike Susumu with illustrations by Hayakawa. Trade paperback with French flaps, 143 pp.

English and Japanese side-by-side with Preface, Pronunciation Guide, 15 pp of historical/literary End Notes, and a map.
3 people found this helpful
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maianh
1.0 out of 5 stars Can you help me?
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2002
I want to know about Sabi in Oku no hoshomichi. But i cant'n reat about it anywhere. Can you help me?
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
老い先短い一文学博士
5.0 out of 5 stars 奥の細道の英語版は内容を知るにはもってこいです
Reviewed in Japan on September 25, 2019
Verified Purchase
翻訳の仕事をしていたら奥の細道の一文が引用されていた。その内容は英文で理解できるのだが、果たして、本文の何処にあるのかを知りたくて注文した。芭蕉の俳句なら推測を付けることもできただろうが、俳句の前にある記述文だった。翻訳の筆者の気持ちを実によく表している一節で、その出典が分かっただけでも嬉しかった。読んでいくうちに、難解な奥の細道の文章も、英文ならこんな表現になるのかと感心することしきりだった。古本だけど状態も良く、値段も手頃だった。
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